People In Americas
Posted On Tuesday, February 16, 2010 at at 4:22 PM by Varaman| Arthur Ashe, 1943-1993: Tennis Champion and Civil Rights Activist | |
| 06 February 2010 |
BARBARA KLEIN:
I’m Barbara Klein.
STEVE EMBER:
And I’m Steve Ember with PEOPLE IN AMERICA in VOA Special English. Today we tell about the life of tennis champion Arthur Ashe. 
Arthur Ashe
He was an athlete and a social activist who died before he was fifty. He was honored for his bravery and honesty as well as his strong support of just causes.
BARBARA KLEIN:
In nineteen seventy-five, Arthur Ashe played against Ilie Nastase in the Masters tennis games in Stockholm, Sweden. Nastase was out of control. He delayed the game. He called Ashe bad names.
Finally, Arthur Ashe put down his tennis racket and walked off the tennis court. He said, "I've had enough. I'm at the point where I'm afraid I'll lose control. " The officials were shocked; Ashe was winning the game. One official told him he would lose if he walked out of the game. Ashe said, "I don't care. I'd rather lose that than my self-respect. "
The next day, the Masters committee met. They knew that if they gave the game to Nastase, they would be supporting his kind of actions. They felt it was how you played the game that really counted. So, the officials decided it was Nastase who must lose the game.
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STEVE EMBER:
Arthur Ashe was born in nineteen forty-three in the southern city of Richmond, Virginia. His parents were Mattie Cunningham Ashe and Arthur Ashe, Senior.
In those days, black people and white people lived separately in the South. By law, African-Americans could not attend the same schools or the same churches as white people.
Arthur learned to live with racial separation. He attended an all-black school. He played in the areas kept separate for blacks. And when he traveled to his grandmother's house, he sat in the back of the bus behind a white line. Only white people could sit in the front part of the bus.
Tennis was a sport traditionally played by white people. Arthur's experience was different from most other tennis players. He grew up under poorer conditions. His father worked several jobs at the same time. And his mother died when he was six.
BARBARA KLEIN:
Mister Ashe taught his son the importance of leading an honorable life. He said a person does not get anywhere in life by making enemies. He explained that a person gains by helping others. Arthur Ashe, Senior taught his son the importance of his friends, his family and his history. He said that without his good name, he would be nothing.
By example, Arthur's father taught the importance of hard work. His job was to drive people where they wanted to go. And he did other kinds of jobs for several wealthy families.
STEVE EMBER:
When Arthur was four, his father was given responsibility for a public play area called Brook Field. It was the largest play area for black people in the city of Richmond. Mister Ashe continued to work at his other jobs as well. The family moved into a five-room house in the middle of the park.
Arthur could use the swimming pool, basketball courts, baseball fields and tennis courts in the park. He liked sports. He was not very big, but he was fast.
Arthur began playing tennis when he was seven years old. He was very small. The racket he used to hit the tennis ball seemed bigger than he was. But by the time he was thirteen years old, he was winning against players two times his size and age.
Arthur had great energy and sense of purpose. He would hit five hundred tennis balls each summer day early in the morning. He would stop to eat his morning meal. Then he would hit five hundred more tennis balls.
BARBARA KLEIN:
When Arthur was ten years old, he met Robert Walter Johnson. Doctor Johnson established a tennis camp for black children who were not permitted to play on tennis courts for whites.
Doctor Johnson helped Arthur learn to be calm while playing tennis. He taught him to use restraint. He said that anger at an opponent was a waste of energy.
By nineteen sixty, Arthur had won the National Junior Indoor Championship. And, the University of California at Los Angeles offered him a college education if he played for the UCLA tennis team. In nineteen sixty-five, Arthur Ashe led the team to the National Collegiate Athletic Association championship. He completed his education the next year with a degree in business administration.
STEVE EMBER:
Arthur Ashe then became a professional tennis player. In nineteen sixty-eight, he won the United States Open. It was the first time an African-American man had won one of the four major competitions in tennis.
In nineteen seventy, he won the Australian Open. The next year, he won the French Open Doubles Championship with Marty Riessen. And, in nineteen seventy-five, he won the Wimbledon Singles Championship in England. Two times he was named the number one tennis player in the world.
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BARBARA KLEIN:
Throughout his life, Arthur Ashe fought against social injustice. He supported racial equality and tried to bring blacks and whites together.
In nineteen seventy-three, Ashe was the first black player to be invited to compete in the South African Open. At the time, South African laws separated people by race.
Ashe knew why he was invited. He knew that the South African government was trying to change its image so it could take part in the Olympic Games. He agreed to go, but on his own terms. He played before a racially mixed group. And, he went wherever he pleased and said what he wanted.
STEVE EMBER:
Arthur Ashe went back to South Africa many times. He went not only to fight against the system of racial separation. He went to show the oppressed children of the country that he was a successful black man. Former South African President Nelson Mandela spent twenty-seven years in prison. After his release, the first person Mandela asked to see during his visit to the United States was Arthur Ashe.
BARBARA KLEIN:
Ashe used his fame to help increase public knowledge of racism in America. He told reporters how the color of his skin kept him out of tennis games as a boy in Richmond. He spoke against black separatism. He wanted to unite the races, not separate them.
During his travels with the United States Davis Cup team, he said, "People in other countries read a lot about race troubles in the United States. But when they see two guys from the South like Cliff Richey and me, one white and one colored, both sharing a room and being close friends, it must do a little good.”
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STEVE EMBER:
In nineteen seventy-seven, Arthur Ashe married Jeanne Moutoussamy. They shared a deep concern for others. Ashe always urged people to do their best -- even his opponents. To help others, he started an organization, the Safe Passage Foundation. It helped poor children develop the skills to learn. And it taught them how to play tennis and golf.
BARBARA KLEIN:
In nineteen seventy-nine, Ashe felt severe pain in his chest. He had suffered his first heart attack, even though he seemed in excellent physical condition. His days of playing tennis were over.
Doctors operated on him later that year to try to improve the flow of blood from his heart. But his physical activity was very limited. Four years later, he had to have another operation.
STEVE EMBER:
Now that he could not be active in sports, he took on new responsibilities. He helped the American Heart Association educate the public about heart disease. He wrote books. And, in nineteen eighty-six, he became a father when his wife Jeanne gave birth to their daughter, Camera.
Two years later, Arthur Ashe faced his final struggle. He discovered he had the virus that causes the disease AIDS.He and his doctors believed he had gotten it when he received infected blood after his second heart operation. He kept the bad news a secret for more than three years. He did not want his daughter to know. But reporters found out about his condition in nineteen ninety-two. He decided to tell the public.
BARBARA KLEIN:
Ashe continued to work even though he was weak from the disease. During his last ten months of life, he continued to help children. He also demonstrated to support Haitian refugees, continued to fight racial injustice and battled AIDS. He said, ". . . Living with AIDS is not the greatest burden I've had in my life. Being black is." He gave his last speech the week he died. He said, "AIDS killed my body, but racism is harder to bear. It kills the soul."
Arthur Ashe died in nineteen ninety-three. He was forty-nine years old. He had told a friend, "You come to realize that life is short, and you have to step up. Don't feel sorry for me. Much is expected of those who are strong."
STEVE EMBER:
This program was written by Vivian Chakarian. It was produced by Lawan Davis. I’m Steve Ember.
BARBARA KLEIN:
And I’m Barbara Klein.Join us again next week for PEOPLE IN AMERICA in VOA Special English.
| Pioneers Who Shaped the Sounds of Radio | |
| 30 January 2010 |
BARBARA KLEIN:
I’m Barbara Klein.
STEVE EMBER:
And I’m Steve Ember with PEOPLE IN AMERICA in VOA Special English. Today, we will tell about several men who influenced the development of radio.
BARBARA KLEIN:
Some people say radio was invented by Guglielmo Marconi of Italy. Marconi sent the first radio communication signals through the air in eighteen ninety-five. In fact, no one person can be called the inventor of radio. Many people, including several Americans, helped to develop radio. You may not know their names. However, their work affected many people.
Over the years, radio has become one of the most important forms of communication. It can be used for two- way communication, such as between a ship and land. Scientists even use radio to communicate into space. And radio broadcasts let people send words, music and information to any part of the world.
STEVE EMBER:
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| William Shockley and Lee De Forest |
Only a few people could hear the broadcast. Some were people in the New York area who had built radio receivers. Some ships at sea and military radio stations received the broadcast. Many newspapers of the day reported on the event. The name of Lee De Forest became part of broadcasting history.
BARBARA KLEIN:
De Forest developed some of the technology used in early radio. During his lifetime, he invented hundreds of devices that were used in telephones, shortwave radio broadcasts, and similar technology.
His most famous invention was the vacuum tube, or electron tube. In nineteen-oh-six, the electron tube was considered the single most important development in electronics. The device made it possible to strengthen radio signals and to send them over long distances. It was a major reason for the fast growth of the electronics and communications industries in the early part of the twentieth century.
STEVE EMBER:
Edwin Armstrong was another American inventor who was important in the development of electronics and radio communication. Armstrong developed technology that helped to improve radio reception. He discovered ways to limit unwanted radio signals. Edwin Armstrong also was a leader in using radio to reproduce sounds clearly. This process became known as frequency modulation, or FM radio. FM radio provided better sound reproduction and less noise or interference than traditional AM radio. Armstrong also developed radio receivers that became widely used.
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BARBARA KLEIN:
Many experts say station KDKA in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania was the first American radio station. It broadcast results of the American presidential election in November, nineteen twenty. That is generally considered the start of professional radio broadcasting in the United States.
Soon, radio stations began to appear in other areas. In nineteen twenty-two, two stations in New York State joined together to broadcast the championship game of American baseball. The stations were connected by telephone lines. This permitted them to share the same program. It was one of the first examples of a radio network.
![[insert caption here]](http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/images/ap_nbc_31jan10.jpg "[insert caption here]")
STEVE EMBER:
By the middle of the nineteen-twenties, there were two main radio networks in the United States. The National Broadcasting Corporation, NBC, was formed by the Radio Corporation of America. NBC became the first permanent national network. The other network was the Columbia Broadcasting System, called CBS. The networks provided programs to radio stations across the country. Local stations created very few programs. What listeners heard in New York was often heard in Los Angeles, California and other cities.
BARBARA KLEIN:
David Sarnoff was the man responsible for NBC. As a young man, Sarnoff had taught himself Morse code. He got a job with the Marconi Wireless Telegraph Company where he worked as a telegraph operator. He was on duty when the passenger ship Titanic sank in the Atlantic Ocean in nineteen twelve. Sarnoff helped the rescue effort by informing other ships about the accident. He understood that someone using radio could affect many lives. By nineteen twenty-one, Sarnoff was an official of the Radio Corporation of America. He pushed RCA to enter broadcasting. The company soon earned huge profits. Five years later, David Sarnoff helped create NBC. David Sarnoff developed the theory of broadcasting.
This was very different from the communication between two people speaking to each other on a telephone. Radio meant that someone could speak to millions of people.
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STEVE EMBER:
William S. Paley developed another radio network. In nineteen twenty-eight, Paley left his family's business. He spent several hundred thousand dollars on several radio stations. These stations became known as the Columbia Broadcasting System. Paley's friends and advisers told him that he had made a huge mistake. They said his dream of building a large and important radio network would never come true. Paley did not listen to them. Instead, he went to see the heads of some of the largest American companies to get their financial support for his network.
Then, Paley searched for the best people he could find to produce the radio shows and news programming he wanted. He paid them well. William Paley was always looking for people with special skills. One night, he attended a show by the popular Tommy Dorsey Band. A young man with the group sang during the performance. His name was Frank Sinatra. Sinatra soon had his own program with CBS, Paley's radio network.
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BARBARA KLEIN:
Radio was extremely popular in the United States between the late nineteen twenties and the early nineteen fifties. This period is known as the Golden Age of Broadcasting.
During this period, families gathered in their living rooms every night to listen to radio shows. Children hurried from school to hear shows created for them. In the daytime, millions of women listened to radio plays called soap operas. They were called soap operas because companies that make soap paid for the shows.
STEVE EMBER:
Radio influenced the way many people felt about their community and the world. It permitted them to sit at home and hear what was happening in other areas. During World War Two, people could hear the voices of world leaders, such as American President Franklin Roosevelt.
FRANKLIN ROOSEVELT: “When the dictators -- if the dictators -- are ready to make war upon us, they will not wait for an act of war on our part. They did not wait for Norway or Belgium or the Netherlands to commit an act of war.”
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| Edward R. Murrow |
Listeners also could hear the voices of reporters covering World War Two. Edward R. Murrow became famous for reporting about the war. People sometimes could hear guns and bombs exploding during his report.
EDWARD R. MURROW: “The plane is still very high and it’s quite clear that he’s not coming in for his bombing run…Earlier this evening we could hear occasional—again, those were explosions overhead. Earlier this evening, we heard a number of bombs go sliding and slithering across, to fall several blocks away.”
STEVE EMBER:
In nineteen thirty-seven, Edward R. Murrow was the only representative of CBS in Europe. Murrow built a team of news reporters whose names would become well known to listeners. Murrow and reporter William Shirer made broadcasting history in nineteen thirty-eight. They organized a special broadcast with European reaction to the seizure of Austria by Nazi Germany. The show had reports from London, Berlin, Paris and Rome. It was a huge success.
BARBARA KLEIN:
In the United States, the rise of television in the nineteen fifties ended the Golden Age of Radio Broadcasting. More and more people started to watch television. Most of the popular shows disappeared from radio.
Many people believed television would cause radio broadcasting to become unimportant. However, the number of radio listeners continues to grow. Most experts say radio will continue to be important during this century.
STEVE EMBER:
This program was written by George Grow. It was produced by Caty Weaver. I'm Steve Ember.
BARBARA KLEIN:
And I'm Barbara Klein. Join us again next week for PEOPLE IN AMERICA in VOA Special English.
| Scott Joplin, 1867-1917: King of Ragtime Music | |
| 23 January 2010 |
VOICE ONE:
I’m Steve Ember.
VOICE TWO:
And I’m Barbara Klein with PEOPLE IN AMERICA in VOA Special English. Today we tell about the life and work of one of America’s greatest music writers: Scott Joplin, the King of Ragtime.
(MUSIC)
VOICE ONE:
That song is called “Maple Leaf Rag.” Scott Joplin wrote it more than one hundred years ago. The song changed Joplin’s life. It was very popular. The composer earned a good living from the sales of the sheet music. He also became famous.
But, even today, much about Scott Joplin remains a mystery. There is conflicting information about the most basic facts, like when and where he was born. Official population documents suggest Scott Joplin was born in eighteen sixty-seven and eighteen sixty-eight. He was born in Texas, probably near the border with Arkansas. The Joplins moved to Texarkana, Texas sometime after eighteen seventy-five and Scott grew up there.
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VOICE TWO:
Scott was the second of seven children born to Giles and Florence Joplin. His father was a freed slave who worked on the railroad. His mother cleaned people’s homes.
The whole Joplin family was musical. Scott’s father played the violin. His mother played the banjo. And all the Joplins enjoyed singing together at home.
Scott learned to play several musical instruments. But Florence Joplin wanted her son to learn how to play the piano. When Scott was about seven years old he began taking piano lessons with a music teacher at his school. The Joplins were poor, so Scott’s mother paid for the weekly lessons with food. Florence Joplin also got permission for her son to use a piano in one of the houses she cleaned in Texarkana.
Florence and Giles Joplin separated before Scott became a teenager. Some experts think Scott blamed himself for the break-up. Many experts also think Scott Joplin’s opera “Treemonisha” included incidents of his life with his mother after Giles Joplin left. For example, the character “Treemonisha” receives music lessons paid for by her mother who cleans people’s houses. Listen to this aria from the opera. Carmen Balthrop is Treemonisha.
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VOICE ONE:
Scott Joplin’s early piano lessons did not include ragtime. That kind of music was played in dance and drinking places and was not considered acceptable. Scott first studied classical music with several teachers. They included a German immigrant named Julius Weiss who probably had the strongest influence on the boy.
VOICE TWO:
Scott left Texas when he was a teenager. He worked as a piano player and gave lessons in the guitar and mandolin. In his twenties he settled in Sedalia, Missouri. He formed a group called the Texas Medley Quartet. The group sometimes traveled great distances to perform. Scott Joplin began his music-writing career in Sedalia. He attended college classes to learn to become a composer.
Joplin also got a permanent job in Sedalia playing the piano in a new nightclub. Sedalia’s most important citizens visited the Maple Leaf Club. The job permitted Joplin time to write and play his own work.
Something even more important happened to Joplin in Sedalia. He met John Stark, the owner of a local music store. In eighty ninety-nine, Stark published the song “Maple Leaf Rag.” It was not Joplin’s first published music. But it was the he was most proud of.
Stark offered to pay Joplin a percentage of each sale of “Maple Leaf Rag” sheet music. This was an extremely unusual business agreement for a white publisher and black composer at that time. Usually, white publishers paid only a small amount of money for full ownership of music written by African-Americans. The agreement was very good for both Scott Joplin and John Stark.
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VOICE ONE:
Ragtime music is dance music. It combines a solid, often lively, beat with a looser, complex melody. Most experts agree that the traditional music and dance of American slaves played a big part in the development of ragtime.
Here is a perfect example. Scott Joplin and John Stark published “A Breeze From Alabama” in nineteen-oh-two. It is music for a dance called the two-step.
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| Scott Joplin |
John Stark decided that Scott Joplin was going to become too popular to stay in the small town of Sedalia. He decided to move his music business to the big city of Saint Louis, Missouri. Joplin moved to Saint Louis with a woman named Belle Hayden. Later they were married. But Joplin was not as successful in love as he was in music. He and Belle separated in nineteen-oh-two.
Two years later Joplin married again. But his wife, Freddie Alexander, died just three months later. The Scott Joplin Organization in Sedalia, Missouri says Joplin wrote this rag, “The Chrysanthemum,” for his second wife.
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After his wife’s death, in nineteen-oh-five, Joplin wrote a concert waltz called “Bethena.” The piece has a sad sound to it, quite unlike Joplin’s earlier work. You might recognize it as the theme music for the Special English program Words and Their Stories.
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VOICE ONE:
Joplin lived in many places in the years that followed. He also worked on his opera, “Treemonisha.” He had hoped his longtime business partner John Stark would publish it, but he refused. Stark did not think a ragtime opera would sell.
After nineteen-oh-seven Joplin lived mostly in New York City. He and his new wife Lottie tried for many years to get “Treemonisha” produced. But its opening night did not come until more than fifty years after Joplin’s death.
By about nineteen fifteen, Scott Joplin began suffering badly from syphilis. The disease robbed him of his ability to play piano. It also destroyed his ability to write music. He died in New York City in nineteen-seventeen.
Scott Joplin left the world sixty musical works. These include many piano rags that are still played today.
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VOICE TWO:
This program was written and produced by Caty Weaver. I’m Barbara Klein.
VOICE ONE:
And I’m Steve Ember. Join us again next week for PEOPLE IN AMERICA in VOA Special English. We leave you now with one of Scott Joplin’s prettiest rags, “Heliotrope Bouquet.”
| William Faulkner, 1897-1962: He Won the Nobel Prize in Literature | |
| 08 January 2010 |
VOICE ONE:
I'm Faith Lapidus.
VOICE TWO:
And I'm Steve Ember with PEOPLE IN AMERICA in VOA Special English.
Today, we finish the story of the writer William Faulkner. He created an area and filled it with people of the American South.
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VOICE ONE:
![[insert caption here]](http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/images/wfaulkner_al-gov_se_02jan10.jpg "[insert caption here]")
In nineteen forty-five, all seventeen books William Faulkner had written by then were not being published. Some of them could not be found even in stores that sold used books.
The critic Malcolm Cowley says, Faulkner's "early novels had been praised too much, usually for the wrong reasons. His later and in many ways better novels had been criticized or simply not read. "
Even those who liked his books were not always sure what he was trying to say.
Faulkner never explained. And he did not give information about himself. He did not even correct the mistakes others made when they wrote about him. He did not care how his name was spelled: with or without a "u." He said either way was all right with him.
Once he finished a book he was not concerned about how it was presented to the public. Sometimes he did not even keep a copy of his book. He said, "I think I have written a lot and sent it off to be printed before I realized strangers might read it."
VOICE TWO:
In nineteen forty-six, Malcolm Cowley collected some of Faulkner's writings and wrote a report about him. The collection attempted to show what Faulkner was trying to do, and how each different book was part of a unified effort.
Cowley agreed that Faulkner was an uneven writer. Yet, he said, the unevenness shows that Faulkner was willing to take risks, to explore new material, and new ways to talk about it.
In nineteen twenty-nine, in his novel “Sartoris,” Faulkner presented almost all the ideas he developed during the rest of his life. Soon after, he published the book he liked best, “The Sound and the Fury.” It was finished before “Sartoris,” but did not appear until six months later.
VOICE ONE:
In talking about “The Sound and the Fury,” Faulkner said he saw in his mind a dirty little girl playing in front of her house. From this small beginning, Faulkner developed a story about the Compson family, told in four different voices. Three of the voices are brothers: Benjy, who is mentally sick; Quentin, who kills himself, and Jason, a business failure. Each of them for different reasons mourns the loss of their sister, Caddie. Each has a different piece of the story.
It is a story of sadness and loss, of the failure of an old Southern family to which the brothers belong. It also describes the private ideas of the brothers. To do this, Faulkner invents a different way of writing for each of them. Only the last part of the novel is told in the normal way. The other three parts move forward and back through time and space.
VOICE TWO:
The story also shows how the Compson family seems to cooperate in its failure. In doing so the family destroys what it wants to save.
Quentin, in “The Sound and the Fury,” tries to pressure his sister to say that she is pregnant by him. He finds it better to say that a brother and sister had sex together than to admit that she had sex with one of the common town boys of Jefferson.
Another brother, Jason, accuses others of stealing his money and causing his business to fail. At the same time, he is stealing from the daughter of his sister.
Missus Compson, the mother in the family, says of God's actions: "It can't be simply to. . . hurt me. Whoever God is, he would not permit that. I'm a lady. "
VOICE ONE:
Some of the people Faulkner creates, like Reverend Hightower in “Light in August,” live so much in the past that they are unable to face the present. Others seem to run from one danger to another, like young Bayard Sartoris, seeking his own destruction. These people exist, Faulkner says, "in that dream state in which you run without moving from a terror in which you cannot believe, toward a safety in which you have no…[belief]. "
As Malcolm Cowley shows, all of Faulkner's people, black or white, act in a similar way. They dig for gold after they have lost hope of finding it -- like Henry Armstid in the novel, “The Hamlet.” They battle and survive a Mississippi flood for the reward of returning to state prison -- as the tall man did in the story "Old Man." They turn and face death at the hands of a mob -- like Joe Christmas does in the novel, “Light in August.” They act as if they will succeed when they know they will fail.
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VOICE TWO:
Faulkner's next book, “As I Lay Dying,” was published in nineteen thirty. It is similar to “The Sound and the Fury” in the way it is written and in the way it deals with loss. Again Faulkner uses a series of different voices to tell his story. The loss this time is the death of the family's mother. The family carries the body through flood and fire in an effort to get her body to Jefferson to be buried.
Neither “As I Lay Dying” nor “The Sound and the Fury” was a great success. Faulkner did not earn much money from them. He was adding to his earnings by selling short stories and by working from time to time on movies in Hollywood. Then to earn more money, he wrote a book full of sex and violence. He called it “Sanctuary.”
When the book was ready to be published, Faulkner went to New York and completely rewrote it. The changes were made after it was printed. So Faulkner had to pay for them himself.
VOICE ONE:
The main person in “Sanctuary” is a man called Popeye. He is a kind of mechanical man, a man, Faulkner says, without human eyes. Faulkner says he is a person with the depth of pressed metal. For Faulkner, Popeye represents everything that is wrong with modern society and its concern with economic capitalism.
Popeye is a criminal, a man who "made money and had nothing he could do with it, spend it for." He knows that alcohol will kill him like poison. He has no friends. He has never known a woman.
In later books he appears as a member of the Snopes family. The Snopes are a group of killers and barn burners. They fear nothing, except nature. They love no one, except themselves. They cheat everyone, even the devil. They live in a private land without morals. Yet Flem Snopes ends as the president of the bank in Jefferson.
Like Popeye, they gain the ownership and use of things, but they never really have them. Flem Snopes marries into a powerful family but his wife does not even have a name for him. She calls him "that man."
Faulkner says that nothing can be had without love. Love is the opposite of the desire for power. A person in one of Faulkner's stories says, "God created man, and he created the world for him to live in. And. . . He created the kind of world he would have wanted to live in if he had been a man. "
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VOICE TWO:
“Light in August” starts with the search by a woman, Lena Grove, for the man who promised to marry her. The story is also about two people who do not fit with other people. They are a black man named Joe Christmas, and a former minister, John Hightower, who has lost his belief in God. Faulkner ties the three levels of individual psychology, social history and tragedy into a whole.
In nineteen thirty-six, Faulkner followed “Light in August” with “Absalom, Absalom.” Many consider this his best novel. It is the story of Joseph Sutpen, who wants to start a famous Southern family after America's Civil War. It is told by four speakers, each trying to discover what the story means. The reader sees how the story changes with each telling, and that the "meanings" are created by individuals. He finds that creating stories is the way a human being finds meaning. Thus, “Absalom, Absalom” is also about itself, as a work of the mind of man.
VOICE ONE:
Faulkner's great writing days were over by the end of World War Two. Near the end of his life, Faulkner received many honors. The last and best one was the Nobel Prize for Literature in nineteen forty-nine.
In a speech accepting the award, Faulkner spoke to young writers. It was a time of great fears about the atomic bomb. Faulkner said that he refused to accept the end of the human race.
WILLIAM FAULKNER:"
I believe that man will not merely endure: he will prevail. He is immortal, not because he alone among creatures has an inexhaustible voice, but because he has a soul, a spirit capable of compassion and sacrifice and endurance. The poet's, the writer's, duty is to write about these things.”
William Faulkner died of a heart attack in nineteen sixty-two. He was sixty-five years old.
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VOICE TWO:
This program was written by Richard Thorman and produced by Lawan Davis. I'm Steve Ember.
VOICE ONE:
And I'm Faith Lapidus. Join us again next week for PEOPLE IN AMERICA in VOA Special English.
| William Faulkner, 1897-1962: He Was America’s Greatest Southern Writer | |
| 02 January 2010 |
VOICE ONE:
I'm Faith Lapidus.
VOICE TWO:
And I'm Steve Ember with PEOPLE IN AMERICA in VOA Special English. Today, we begin the story of the life of a famous Southern writer, William Faulkner. He wrote about an imaginary place and described changes in the American South.
(MUSIC)
VOICE ONE:
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| William Faulkner |
The other South was a land without any beliefs. It was a place where success was measured by self-interest. This was a South where each person had lost his place in the group. It was a place where people owned things that they did not know how to use.
Faulkner saw that the old beliefs were not right or even worth believing. And he saw that they could not provide justice because they were based on slavery. Yet he felt that even with their lies and half truths the old beliefs were better than the moral emptiness of the modern South.
VOICE TWO:
In Faulkner's story called "The Bear" a group of men are talking after the day's hunt. One man reads from a poem by the English writer, John Keats:
"'She cannot fade, though thou has not thy bliss, Forever wilt thou love, and she be fair. '
"He's talking about a girl," one man says.
The other answers, 'He was talking about truth. Truth is one. It doesn't change. It covers all things which touch the heart -- honor and pity and justice and courage and love. Do you see now. '"
The American writer, Robert Penn Warren says about Faulkner, "The important thing is the presence of the idea of truth. It covers all things that involve the heart and define the effort of man to rise above the mechanical process of life. "
VOICE ONE:
Faulkner has been accused of looking back to a time when life was better. Yet, he believes that truth belongs to all times. But it is found most often in the people who stand outside what he calls "the loud world. "
One of the people in his story "Delta Autumn" says, "There are good men everywhere, at all times. "
Faulkner's great-grandfather accepted the old beliefs. He was one of the men who had helped build the South, but his time was gone. Now money had replaced the old order of honor. What Faulkner saw was that there could be no order at all, no idea of doing what is right, in a world that measured success in terms of money.
VOICE TWO:
This is the changing South that Faulkner describes in the area he created. He named it Yoknapatawpha County. He describes it as in the northern part of the state of Mississippi. It lies between sand hills covered with pine trees and rich farmland near the Mississippi River. It has fifteen-thousand-six-hundred-eleven people, living on almost four-thousand square kilometers. Its central city is Jefferson, where the storekeepers, mechanics, and professional men live.
The rest of the people of Yoknapatawpha County are farmers or men who cut trees. Their only crops are wood and cotton. A few live in big farmhouses, left from an earlier time. Most of them do not even own the land they farm.
The critic Malcolm Cowley says, "Others might say that Faulkner was not so much writing stories for the public as telling them to himself. It is what a lonely child might do, or a great writer. "
(MUSIC)
VOICE ONE:
William Faulkner was born in New Albany, Mississippi, in eighteen-ninety-seven. His father worked for the railroad. William's great-grandfather had built it. His grandfather owned it. When the grandfather decided to sell the railroad, William's father moved his family thirty-five miles west to the city of Oxford.
Growing up in Oxford, William Faulkner heard stories of the past from his grandmother and from a black woman who worked for his family. He heard more stories from old men in front of the courthouse, and from poor farmers sitting in front of a country store.
You learn the stories, Faulkner says, without speech somehow from having been born and living beside them, with them, as children will and do.
VOICE TWO:
Faulkner was a good student. Yet by the time he was fifteen he had left school. Except for a year at the University of Mississippi at the end of World War One, that was the last of his official education.
He took a number of jobs in Oxford, but did not stay with any of them. He began to think that he was a writer. Then in nineteen-eighteen the woman he loved married another man. Faulkner left Mississippi and joined the British Royal Flying Corps. He was sent to Canada to train to fight in World War One.
The war ended before he could be sent to Europe. He returned to Oxford, walking with difficulty because of what he said was a "war wound. "
VOICE ONE:
At home Faulkner again moved from one job to the next. He wrote bad poetry, drew pictures that looked like other men's pictures, and wrote uninteresting stories. A book of his poetry, The Marble Faun, was published in nineteen-twenty-four.
A year later he went to the Southern city of New Orleans, Louisiana. There he met the American writer, Sherwood Anderson. They became friends. Anderson told Faulkner to develop his own way of writing, and to use material from his own part of the country. He also told Faulkner he would find a publisher for the novel Faulkner was writing. But Anderson also told Faulkner that he would not read the book.
VOICE TWO:
The book was called “Soldier's Pay.” It would not be remembered today if it were not for Faulkner's later work. The same could be said of Faulkner's next book, “Mosquitoes.”
Money from these books made it possible for him to travel to Europe. He educated himself by reading a large number of modern writers. Among them was the Irish writer James Joyce. From him, Faulkner learned to write about people's inner thoughts. He also read the books of the Austrian doctor, Sigmund Freud. From him, Faulkner learned some of the reasons people act in the strange way they often do.
Instead of remaining in Paris, as many American writers did, Faulkner returned to Mississippi and began his serious writing. "I was trying," he said, "to put the history of mankind in one sentence. " Later he said, "I am still trying to do it, but now I want to put it all on the head of a pin. " He created Yoknapatawpha County and its people, and gave them a meaning far beyond their place and lives.
(MUSIC)
VOICE ONE:
In nineteen-twenty-nine Faulkner married Estelle Oldham, the woman he had loved since they were in school together. Her earlier marriage had failed. She had returned to Oxford with her two children.
They bought an old ruined house and began the costly work of repairing it. Faulkner also took on the job of supporting the rest of his family. His letters from this time on are often full of talk about what he must do to support his family and to continue the repairs to his house.
VOICE TWO:
Faulkner's next book, “Sartoris,” presents almost all the ideas that he develops during the rest of his life. First, however, the book Faulkner wrote had to be cut by about twenty-five percent.
Faulkner resisted. He said, if you grow a vegetable, you can cut it to look like something else, but it will be dead. Yet, when Faulkner read the book after his editor cut it, he approved. He even cooperated in more re-shaping of the book.
In “Sartoris,” Faulkner found his subject, his voice, and his area. He writes about the connection between an important Southern family and the local community. He describes how the Sartoris family seems to help in its own destruction.
VOICE ONE:
In the next seven years, between nineteen-twenty-nine and nineteen-thirty-six, he seemed to re-invent the novel with every book he wrote. "Get it down," he said. "Take chances. It may be bad, but that's the only way you can do anything good. "
At that time, most novels about the South described a land that never existed. After Faulkner, few northerners were brave enough to write about a South they did not know. And no serious Southern writer was willing to describe a South that did not exist.
(MUSIC)
VOICE TWO:
This program was written by Richard Thorman. It was produced by Lawan Davis. I'm Steve Ember.
VOICE ONE:
And I'm Faith Lapidus. Join us again next week for the rest of the story about William Faulkner on PEOPLE IN AMERICA in VOA Special English.
| Irving Berlin, 1888-1989: He Wrote the Songs that Made America Sing | |
| 19 December 2009 |
VOICE ONE:
I’m Phoebe Zimmerman.
VOICE TWO:
And I'm Steve Ember with the VOA Special English program PEOPLE IN AMERICA. Today, we tell about Irving Berlin. He wrote the words and music for some of the most popular songs of the twentieth century.
(MUSIC)
VOICE ONE:
Irving Berlin lived to be one hundred one years old. He died in nineteen eighty‑nine. During his long life, he wrote more than one thousand songs. Many of his songs have become timeless additions to America's popular culture. 
Irving Berlin
Irving Berlin's music helped spread that popular culture throughout the world. Berlin was born in Russia. But he captured the feeling, the people and the customs of his new country. And he put those ideas to music.
Another composer, Jerome Kern, once said of Irving Berlin: "He has no place in American music. He IS American music."
VOICE TWO:
Most American children grow up hearing and singing some of Irving Berlin's songs. Two of the best known are linked to Christian religious holidays. They are "White Christmas" and "Easter Parade."
Many Americans think the perfect Christmas Day on December twenty‑fifth should be cold and snowy. Irving Berlin thought so, too. He wrote "White Christmas" in nineteen thirty‑nine. It was sung in the movie "Holiday Inn" in nineteen forty‑two. "White Christmas" became one of the best‑selling songs of all time. Here is Bing Crosby singing his famous version of "White Christmas."
(MUSIC)
VOICE ONE:
lrving Berlin's song for the Easter holiday captures another American tradition. "Easter Parade" is about a tradition in New York City. There, on Easter morning, people walk up and down Fifth Avenue after church services to enjoy the spring weather. Women wear new hats and dresses. Berlin wrote the song for a musical play in nineteen thirty‑three. It was the main song in the musical film "Easter Parade" in nineteen forty‑eight. Here is Judy Garland singing "Easter Parade."
(MUSIC)
VOICE TWO:
Irving Berlin was born Israel Baline in eighteen eighty‑eight in the Russian village of Temun. He was the youngest of eight children. His family was Jewish. They fled Russia because of religious oppression.
The Baline family came to America in eighteen ninety‑three. They did not have much money. They moved into an area of New York City where many other poor Jewish immigrants had settled when they moved to the United States. Israel's father died when the boy was eight years old. The young boy left his home to find work. First, he got a job helping a blind street singer. Then he began earning money by singing on the streets of New York. Later, he got a job singing while serving people their food in a restaurant. Israel taught himself to play the piano. But he could play only the black keys.
VOICE ONE:
Soon Israel began writing his own songs. He never learned to read or write music. He wrote his songs by playing the notes with one finger on the piano. An assistant wrote down the notes on sheets of paper. When the songwriter's first song was published, his name was spelled wrong. Israel Baline had become I. Berlin. Israel thought the name sounded more American. So he renamed himself Irving Berlin. ![[insert caption here]](http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/images/irving-berlin2_loc-gov_se_20dec09.jpg "[insert caption here]")
Between nineteen twelve and nineteen sixteen, Irving Berlin wrote more than one hundred eighty songs. By the time he was in his late twenties, his songs were famous around the world.
VOICE TWO:
Berlin became an American citizen in nineteen eighteen. A few months later, he was ordered into military service. The United States was fighting in World War One. Berlin was asked to write songs for a musical about life in the military. He called the show "Yip Yip Yaphank." All of the performers in the show were soldiers. Many of the songs became popular.
After he served in the army, Berlin returned to New York. He formed his own music publishing company. He also established a theater for his musical shows near Broadway.
VOICE ONE:
Irving Berlin loved America for giving a poor immigrant a chance to succeed. He expressed his thanks for this success in his songs. One of these songs is "God Bless America." He wrote the song in nineteen eighteen. But it did not become popular until Kate Smith sang it in nineteen thirty‑nine. She sang the song to celebrate Armistice Day, the anniversary of the end of World War One. Many people feel "God Bless America" is the unofficial national song of the United States.
Berlin gave all money he earned from "God Bless America" to the Boy Scouts and Girl Scouts of America. Here is Kate Smith singing "God Bless America."
(MUSIC)
VOICE TWO:
The United States entered World War Two in nineteen forty‑one. Berlin agreed to write and produce a musical show called "This is the Army." It was a musical about life in the military. All the performers were soldiers.
The show was performed in many cities across the United States. It helped increase support for America's part in the war. It earned ten million dollars for the Army Emergency Relief Fund. "This is the Army" also was performed for the American troops at military bases around the world. Irving Berlin appeared in most of these performances. He sang the song he had written earlier. The song is about what he had hated most about being in the army. Here, Irving Berlin sings "Oh, How I Hate to Get Up in the Morning."
(MUSIC)
VOICE ONE:
After the war, Berlin continued to write songs for movies and plays. He wrote songs for more than fifteen movies from the nineteen thirties to the nineteen fifties. Many of the songs were used in movies starring the famous dancers Fred Astaire and Ginger Rogers. Here is Fred Astaire singing a song that appeared in several movies, "Puttin’ on the Ritz."
(MUSIC)
VOICE TWO:
Irving Berlin also wrote the music for seventeen Broadway plays from the nineteen twenties to nineteen fifty. His most successful Broadway musical was “Annie Get Your Gun” in nineteen forty-six. Irving Berlin retired in nineteen sixty-two after his last Broadway musical, "Mister President," failed. He died in nineteen eighty-nine. But the songs that he gave America will be played and sung for many years to come.
(MUSIC)
VOICE ONE:
This Special English program was written by Shelley Gollust. It was produced by Lawan Davis. Our studio engineer was Sulaiman Tarawaley. I'm Phoebe Zimmerman.
VOICE TWO:
And I'm Steve Ember. Join us again next week for another PEOPLE IN AMERICA program on the Voice of America.
| Louis Kahn, 1901-1974: He Helped Define Modern Architecture | |
| 12 December 2009 |
VOICE ONE:
I’m Steve Ember.
VOICE TWO:
And I’m Barbara Klein with the VOA Special English program PEOPLE IN AMERICA. Today, we tell about Louis Kahn. He is considered one of the most important American building designers of the twentieth century.
(MUSIC)
VOICE ONE:
Louis Kahn helped define modern architecture. Architecture is the art and science of designing and building structures such as houses, museums, and office buildings.Kahn’s architecture has several defining qualities.
For example, Kahn was very interested in the look and feel of the materials he used. He used brick and concrete in new and special ways. Kahn also paid careful attention to the use of sunlight. He liked natural light to enter his buildings through interesting kinds of windows and openings. Kahn’s work can also be identified by his creative use of geometric shapes. Many of his buildings use squares, circles and three sided shapes called triangles.
VOICE TWO: 
Louis Kahn
Louis Kahn was born in Estonia in nineteen-oh-one. When he was five years old his family moved to Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. Even as a child, Louis Kahn showed excellence as an artist. When he was in school his pictures won several competitions organized by the city. In high school, Kahn studied architecture briefly. He later went to the University of Pennsylvania and studied architecture full time. He graduated in nineteen twenty-four.
Louis Kahn’s buildings have many influences. Some experts say his trip to Rome, Italy in nineteen fifty-one influenced him the most. Kahn spent a few months as an architect with the American Academy in Rome. He also traveled through other parts of Italy, Greece and Egypt. There, he saw the ancient Greek and Roman ruins that also would influence his works. He was very affected by the size and design of these ruins. They helped influence him to develop an architecture that combines both modern and ancient designs.
Other experts believe Kahn was also influenced by the part of Philadelphia where he grew up. There were many factory buildings with large windows. These brick structures were very solid. This industrial design is apparent in several of Kahn’s early works.
VOICE ONE:
Kahn’s first projects involved building housing in Philadelphia. He later received government jobs to design housing during World War Two. In nineteen forty-two, he became a head architect of the Public Building Administration. Kahn’s first important project was the Yale Art Gallery in New Haven, Connecticut in the early nineteen fifties. The outside of the building is very simple. The surface is made of brick and limestone.
The inside of the gallery shows Kahn’s great artistic sense. For example, he created a triangle-shaped walkway of steps that sits inside a rounded concrete shell. This building was very popular. Its completion represented an important step in Kahn’s professional life. He was now a famous architect. 
Staircase at Yale University Art Gallery
(MUSIC)
VOICE TWO:
One of Kahn’s other important buildings is the Salk Institute, a research center in La Jolla, California. It was built in the nineteen sixties. This structure further shows how Kahn was able to unite form and function. This means his buildings were beautiful and also useful.
The Salk Institute has two structures that surround a marble garden area or courtyard. This outdoor marble area is almost completely bare. The only detail is a small stream of water running through the middle of the square towards the Pacific Ocean. This simple design is very striking. Inside the building are many rooms for laboratories. Kahn was very careful to make sure they all received natural light and a view of the ocean. He linked the indoor and outdoor spaces in a very beautiful way.
VOICE ONE:
The Kimbell Art Museum in Fort Worth, Texas is another famous building by Louis Kahn. Some say it is his best. Kahn built this museum in the early nineteen seventies.This large museum has long rooms with curved or vaulted ceilings. Inside, all of the walls can be moved to best fit the art collection. Kahn was able to make the concrete material of the building look both solid and airy. He used sunlight and bodies of water to create a truly special building.
Kahn once said this about the Kimbell Art Museum: “The building feels…that I had nothing to do with it…that some other hand did it.” The architect seems to say that he was helped by some higher influence. Many people feel that his architecture has a very spiritual and timeless quality.
Kahn mostly created public buildings such as museums and libraries. However, he also designed a few houses. His most famous home is the Fisher house near Philadelphia. It is made of several box-shaped buildings. The house is made out of glass, wood and stone. Many windows provide a view of the nearby trees.
(MUSIC)
VOICE TWO:
Louis Kahn also designed buildings in other countries, including India and Bangladesh. His largest project was a series of buildings that would become the government center of Dhaka, Bangladesh. This structure includes the parliament, meeting rooms, offices, eating places and even a religious center. 
Dhaka government center
This series of buildings looks like an ancient home for kings. Huge rounded and box-like buildings have windows in the shape of circles and triangles. The structure is surrounded by water. From a distance, it appears to float on a lake. Kahn spent the last twelve years of his life on the project. It was completed in nineteen eighty-three, nine years after his death. Because of Kahn, experts say, one of the poorest countries in the world has one of the most beautiful public buildings on Earth.
All of Kahn’s buildings share a common solidity and heaviness. Experts say they are very different from the works of other famous architects of the period. These architects preferred light and airy buildings. Their weightless-looking structures were mostly made of glass and metal. Kahn used stone and concrete to make monumental buildings. Many of his structures look more ancient than modern.
(MUSIC)
VOICE ONE:
Louis Kahn was an artist who created beautiful works.But he was not a very good businessman. He would change his designs many times. This would make each project take a great deal of time and cost more money. The majority of the projects he designed were never built. Also, he did not like to compromise his design ideas to satisfy a buyer’s wishes. For this reason and others, Kahn did not make many buildings. His design company did not always have many jobs or much money. In fact, when Kahn died, he was in great debt. This is especially unusual since he was considered one of the most important architects in the world.
VOICE TWO:
In two thousand four, Mister Kahn’s son, Nathaniel Kahn, made a film about his father’s life. The film is called “My Architect.” It is interesting for many reasons. “My Architect” gives a history of Kahn’s life. The film presents the architect and his buildings. You can see Kahn working at his desk and talking with his builders. You can also see him teaching university students. You can tell that he had great energy.
The film also shows a great deal about Kahn’s private life. Kahn had a wife and daughter. But he also had two other families. Kahn had a child with each of two other women that he was not married to. In the film, Nathaniel Kahn describes visits from his father.
He says that as a child he did not understand why his father did not live with him and his mother all of the time.
NATHANIEL KAHN IN “MY ARCHITECT”: “I didn’t know my father very well. He never married my mother and he never lived with us. I needed to know him. I needed to find out who he really was. So I set out on a journey to see his buildings and to find whatever was left of him out there.”
VOICE ONE:
Many questions are left unanswered about Kahn. Yet, the film helps tell a very interesting story about a very important man. Louis Kahn died in nineteen seventy-four. Yet his influence lives on. While teaching at the University of Pennsylvania, he trained many future builders. Some students have become important architects. And Kahn’s architecture has remained fresh and timeless.
(MUSIC)
VOICE TWO:
This program was written by Dana Demange. It was produced by Dana Demange and Lawan Davis. I'm Barbara Klein.
VOICE ONE:
And I’m Steve Ember. Join us again next week for PEOPLE IN AMERICA in VOA Special English.
| Marilyn Monroe, 1926-1962: America's Most Famous Sex Symbol | |
| 05 December 2009 |
VOICE ONE:
I'm Shirley Griffith.
VOICE TWO:
 |
| Marilyn Monroe |
VOICE ONE:
Her name at birth was Norma Jean Baker. Her life as a child was like a bad dream. She lived with a number of different people, and often was mistreated.
At age sixteen Norma Jean married a sailor. But she soon ended that marriage. She changed her hair color from brown to shining gold. And she changed her name to Marilyn Monroe.
She wanted to be an actress. And she succeeded. She appeared in a number of Hollywood movies. Millions of people went to see them. By the time Norma Jean had reached the age of twenty-six, her beautiful face and body earned her a place as one of America's leading movie stars.
But success and fame were not enough to make her happy. The troubles of her childhood days stayed with her. She drank too much alcohol. She took too many drugs.
At the age of thirty-six, she took her own life.
VOICE TWO:
She has been dead since nineteen sixty-two. Still, her fame continues to grow.
People born long after she died are watching her movies on television. Objects that belonged to her bring huge prices at public sales.
People continue to talk about what they feel is her strange death. Some people believe she was murdered. Two investigations showed that she died as the result of too many drugs.
VOICE ONE:
Why is the public still so interested in a woman who died so many years ago? A number of reasons. Her exciting but tragic life. Her connections with well-known people. And her image as an especially desirable woman.
In the nineteen fifties, many Americans believed sex was a very private subject. People often severely judged those who were sexually appealing.
Into this atmosphere burst Marilyn Monroe. As one critic said, her body was round in all the right places. She wore her clothes like skin. When she walked, she moved her lower body in a way that few other actresses had done. Her voice was soft and breathy. She soon became America's golden girl.
(MUSIC)
VOICE TWO:
 |
Her mother, Gladys Baker, suffered from mental problems. Often the mother had to be treated in a hospital for long periods of time. Her daughter was sent to live with a number of different people.
The actress later would describe her stays with these foster families as sometimes very unhappy. During the worst experiences, she would go to a movie theater. There the young Norma Jean escaped into the make-believe world of movies.
VOICE ONE:
By the time she was seventeen, Marilyn was trying very hard to be a movie actress. She finally was able to get an actors' agent to help her. He got Twentieth Century Fox Company to give Marilyn parts in some movies it produced.
Marilyn may have worked more to improve her appearance than to improve her performance in acting classes. Some people at Twentieth Century Fox said she did not like to work at all. She appeared in only one movie. And she had only one line to speak in that. The Fox movie company dismissed her.
Soon, however, her agent got her a job at Columbia Pictures. She appeared in a movie called "Ladies of the Chorus." She sang two songs. Several critics praised her performance. But Columbia dismissed her.
VOICE TWO:
Marilyn did not stop struggling. She next won a small part in a movie called "Love Happy." It was a comedy starring the famous Marx Brothers. Critics said it was not one of their better efforts. Marilyn, though, earned praise for simply taking a short walk in the movie.
The movie called for her to say, "Some men are following me." Groucho Marx answered that he did not understand why. As he said that, he watched Marilyn walk her famous walk. His eyes opened very wide.
That short scene in the movie made many people in Hollywood talk about Marilyn Monroe.
VOICE ONE:
Marilyn got her first major chance when director John Huston invited her to act in a movie called "The Asphalt Jungle."
Huston said her performance as a criminal's girlfriend was good. It gained Marilyn her dream of a long-term agreement with Twentieth Century Fox, the company that had dismissed her earlier. Now its officials gave her a part in "All About Eve." The movie, released in nineteen fifty, was about a movie star. She played a golden-haired woman who did not have much intelligence -- "a dumb blonde."
In nineteen fifty-two, Marilyn again appeared as a dumb blonde in "Gentlemen Prefer Blondes." This performance at last won her widespread fame.
(MUSIC)
VOICE TWO:
Huge successes now followed. Between nineteen fifty-three and nineteen fifty-nine she appeared in lead parts in many popular movies: "How To Marry a Millionaire." "The Seven Year Itch." "Bus Stop." "Some Like it Hot."
Her part in "Some Like it Hot" showed that she was very good at making people laugh.
Marilyn's picture appeared on the front cover of many magazines and the front pages of many newspapers. She began to earn more money.
Life should have been good. But Marilyn was not happy. She was being asked to repeat her part as a dumb blonde in movie after movie.
She wanted to be accepted as a good actress. She went to the Actors' Studio school in New York City with many serious actors. She thought she could change the way people thought of her.
MARILYN MONROE: “What I’d like to do, that is, what I would like to accomplish, I would like to be a good actress. And it’s not a matter of being on top because I think some of the best actors and actresses perhaps aren’t on the top. So that’s not the thing. I’m terribly grateful for everything that’s happened because I remember when things weren’t like this at all. But you do miss sometimes just being able to be completely yourself and some place and people just know you as another human being.”
VOICE ONE:
But she did not succeed. People thought of Marilyn Monroe as "that blonde bombshell." Few people thought of her as a serious actress.
She also failed in her attempts at marriage. She admitted that she got married the first time only to escape from being forced to live in a group home for children without parents. In nineteen fifty-four she married again. Her
husband was the famous New York Yankee baseball player, Joe Di Maggio. They were together for only a few months.
Later, she tried again. She married Arthur Miller, a famous writer of plays. That marriage ended unhappily in nineteen sixty-one, after five years.
(MUSIC)
VOICE TWO:
Marilyn returned to Hollywood. But things were different now. Friends said she was drinking too much alcohol. They said she was taking too many drugs.
She seemed to always be in trouble with the movie company. She had gained too much weight. Or, she had not learned what she was to say in the movie. Or she had arrived late for the filming.
By nineteen sixty-two, Marilyn's problems were threatening her work in the movies. She was to appear in the Twentieth Century Fox movie called "Something's Got to Give.”
She lost weight for her part. She tried to arrive on time for the filming. She reportedly knew her part. However, she became sick several times and missed work. Fox company officials dismissed her.
VOICE ONE:
On August fourth, nineteen sixty-two, Marilyn Monroe died alone in her home. She was thirty-six years old. Reports said taking too many drugs killed her. But people who knew her said failed marriages, and the failure of her latest movie also led to her death.
Many people said Marilyn Monroe never escaped her past. She continued to suffer from the early, sad life of a little girl named Norma Jean.
(MUSIC)
VOICE TWO:
This Special English program was written by Jeri Watson and directed by Marilyn Christiano. I'm Steve Ember.
VOICE ONE:
And I'm Shirley Griffith. Join us again next week for another PEOPLE IN AMERICA program on the Voice of America.
| Hank Williams,1923-1953: He Wrote Songs About Love and Heartbreak | |
| 21 November 2009 |
VOICE ONE:
PEOPLE IN AMERICA -- a program in Special English by the Voice of America.
Every week at this time, we tell you a story about people who played a part in the history of the United States. I'm Tony Riggs. Today, Larry West and I tell the story of country and
western singer and songwriter, Hank Williams.
(MUSIC)
VOICE TWO:
That was the record Hank Williams made when he first tried to interest recording companies in his music. None of the companies liked it at the time. But a few years later, the high sharp voice of Hank Williams would cut like a knife through the music world. When he sang his songs, people listened. They are still listening, long after his death.
VOICE ONE:
Hank Williams was born in nineteen twenty-three on a small farm near Mount Olive, Alabama. Like most people at that time in the southern United States, the Williams family was poor. Hank's father could not work. He had been injured in World War One. He spent many years in a hospital when Hank was a boy.
The Williams family did not own many things. But it always had music. Hank sang in church. When he was eight years old, he got an old guitar and taught himself to play. From then on, music would be the most important thing in his life.
VOICE TWO:
By the time Hank was fourteen, he had already put together his own group of musicians. They played at dances and parties. They also played at a small local radio station. They were known as "Hank Williams and his Drifting Cowboys."
For more than ten years, Hank remained popular locally, but was unknown nationally. Then, in nineteen forty-nine, he recorded his first major hit record. The song was "Lovesick Blues."
(MUSIC)
Hank Williams and his group performed "Lovesick Blues" on the stage of the Grand Ole Opry house in Nashville, Tennessee. People in the theater would not let him stop singing. They made him sing the song six times. After years of hard work, Hank Williams had become a star.
VOICE ONE:![[insert caption here]](http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/images/yourcheatinheart_amazon-com_1.jpg "[insert caption here]")
Hank wrote many songs in the years that followed. Singers are still recording them today. They may sing the songs in the country and western style -- the way Hank wrote them. Or they may sing them in other popular styles. Either way, the songs will always be his.
Hank Williams wrote both happy songs and sad songs. But the sad songs are remembered best.
When Hank sang a sad song, those who listened knew it was about something that had happened to him. Somehow, he was able to share his feelings in his music. One of the most famous of these sad songs is "Your Cheatin' Heart." One music expert said: "Your Cheatin' Heart" is so sad, it sounds like a judge sentencing somebody to a punishment worse than death itself.”
(MUSIC)
"Your Cheatin' Heart" was written in the early nineteen fifties. It has been recorded by more than fifty singers and groups in almost every style of popular music.
VOICE TWO:
Many years after Hank Williams' death, new fans of his music have asked why he could put so much of his life into his songs. There is no easy answer to that question.
Hank Williams had many problems during his life. He and his wife Audrey did not have a happy marriage. Many of his songs seemed to ask: “Why can't we make this marriage work?” Many people knew that when Hank sang this song, "Cold Cold Heart", he was singing about his wife and their problems. Those who had similar problems felt that Hank was singing about them, too.
(MUSIC)
VOICE ONE:
Hank Williams drank too much alcohol. Those who knew Hank Williams say he did not have ![[insert caption here]](http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/images/hankwilliamsgold_amazon-com.jpg "[insert caption here]")
the emotional strength to deal with his problems. They say he often felt he had no control over his life.
Everything seemed to be moving too fast. He could not stop. And he could not escape. He had money and fame. But they did not cure his loneliness, his drinking, or his marriage problems.
Hank was always surrounded by people, especially after he became famous. None, however, could break through the terrible sadness that seemed to follow him everywhere. One song, "I'm So Lonesome I Could Cry", expresses his feelings of loneliness.
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VOICE TWO:
When Hank Williams began to record his songs, country and western music was not popular with most Americans. It was the music of the poor farming areas of the South. However, because Hank's songs told of real-life troubles with such great emotion, something unusual began to happen to his music.
Radio stations that had never played country and western music began to play Hank Williams' songs. Famous recording stars who never sang country and western music began recording songs written by Hank Williams. He had created a collection of music that stretched far past himself and his times.
Hank Williams' life and career were brief. He died on New Year's Day, nineteen fifty-three. He was twenty-nine years old.
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VOICE ONE:
You have been listening to PEOPLE IN AMERICA, a program in Special English by the Voice of America. Your narrators were Larry West and Tony Riggs. PEOPLE IN AMERICA was written by Paul Thompson.
| Helen Keller, 1880-1968: She Became the Most Famous Disabled Person in the World | |
| 14 November 2009 |
VOICE ONE:
I'm Ray Freeman.
VOICE TWO:
And I'm Shirley Griffith with PEOPLE IN AMERICA - a program in Special English by the Voice of America. Every week we tell about someone who was important in the history of the United States.
This week we finish the story of a writer and educator, Helen Keller. She helped millions of people who, like her, were blind and deaf.
VOICE ONE:
We reported last week that Helen Keller suffered from a strange sickness when she was only nineteen months old. It made her completely blind and deaf. For the next five years she had no way of successfully communicating with other people. 
Helen Keller
Then, a teacher -- Anne Sullivan -- arrived from Boston to help her. Miss Sullivan herself had once been blind. She tried to teach Helen to live like other people. She taught her how to use her hands as a way of speaking.
Miss Sullivan took Helen out into the woods to explore nature. They also went to the circus, the theater, and even to factories. Miss Sullivan explained everything in the language she and Helen used -- a language of touch -- of fingers and hands. Helen also learned how to ride a horse, to swim, to row a boat and, even to climb trees.
Helen Keller once wrote about these early days.
VOICE TWO:
"One beautiful spring morning I was alone in my room, reading. Suddenly, a wonderful smell in the air made me get up and put out my hands. The spirit of spring seemed to be passing in my room. ‘What is it?’ I asked. The next minute I knew it was coming from the mimosa tree outside.
I walked outside to the edge of the garden, toward the tree. There it was, shaking in the warm sunshine. Its long branches, so heavy with flowers, almost touched the ground. I walked through the flowers to the tree itself and then just stood silent. Then I put my foot on the tree and pulled myself up into it. I climbed higher and higher until I reached a little seat. Long ago someone had put it there. I sat for a long time. . . Nothing in all the world was like this.” "
VOICE ONE:
Later, Helen learned that nature could be cruel as well as beautiful. Strangely enough she discovered this in a different kind of tree.
VOICE TWO:
"One day my teacher and I were returning from a long walk. It was a fine morning. But it started to get warm and heavy. We stopped to rest two or three times. Our last stop was under a cherry tree a short way from the house.
The shade was nice and the tree was easy to climb. Miss Sullivan climbed with me. It was so cool up in the tree we decided to have lunch there. I promised to sit still until she went to the house for some food. Suddenly a change came over the tree. I knew the sky was black because all the heat, which meant light to me, had died out of the air. A strange odor came up to me from the earth. I knew it -- it was the odor which always comes before a thunderstorm.
I felt alone, cut off from friends, high above the firm earth. I was frightened, and wanted my teacher. I wanted to get down from that tree quickly. But I was no help to myself. There was a moment of terrible silence.
Then a sudden and violent wind began to shake the tree and its leaves kept coming down all around me. I almost fell. I wanted to jump, but was afraid to do so. I tried to make myself small in the tree, as the branches rubbed against me. Just as I thought that both the tree and I were going to fall, a hand touched me. . . It was my teacher. I held her with all my strength then shook with joy to feel the solid earth under my feet. "
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VOICE ONE:
Miss Sullivan stayed with Helen for many years. She taught Helen how to read, how to write and how to speak. She helped her to get ready for school and college. More than anything, Helen wanted to do what others did, and do it just as well.
In time, Helen did go to college and completed her studies with high honors. But it was a hard struggle. Few of the books she needed were written in the Braille language that the blind could read by touching pages. Miss Sullivan and others had to teach her what was in these books by forming words in her hands.
The study of geometry and physics was especially difficult. Helen could only learn about squares, triangles, and other geometrical forms by making them with wires. She kept feeling the different shapes of these wires until she could see them in her mind.
During her second year at college, Miss Keller wrote the story of her life and what college meant to her. This is what she wrote.
VOICE TWO:
"My first day at Radcliffe College was of great interest. Some powerful force inside me made me test my mind. I wanted to learn if it was as good as that of others. 
I learned many things at college. One thing, I slowly learned was that knowledge does not just mean power, as some people say. Knowledge leads to happiness, because to have it is to know what is true and real.
To know what great men of the past have thought, said and done is to feel the heartbeat of humanity down through the ages."
VOICE ONE:
All of Helen Keller's knowledge reached her mind through her sense of touch and smell, and of course her feelings.
To know a flower was to touch it, feel it, and smell it. This sense of touch became greatly developed as she got older.
She once said that hands speak almost as loudly as words.
She said the touch of some hands frightened her. The people seem so empty of joy that when she touched their cold fingers it is as if she were shaking hands with a storm.
She found the hands of others full of sunshine and warmth.
Strangely enough, Helen Keller learned to love things she could not hear, music for example. She did this through her sense of touch.
When waves of air beat against her, she felt them. Sometimes she put her hand to a singer's throat. She often stood for hours with her hands on a piano while it was played. Once, she listened to an organ. Its powerful sounds made her move her body in rhythm with the music.
She also liked to go to museums.
She thought she understood sculpture as well as others. Her fingers told her the true size, and the feel of the material.
What did Helen Keller think of herself?What did she think about the tragic loss of her sight and hearing?This is what she wrote as a young girl:
VOICE TWO:
"Sometimes a sense of loneliness covers me like a cold mist -- I sit alone and wait at life's shut door. Beyond, there is light and music and sweet friendship, but I may not enter. Silence sits heavy upon my soul.
Then comes hope with a sweet smile and says softly, 'There is joy in forgetting one's self.’ And so I try to make the light in others' eyes my sun. . . The music in others' ears my symphony. . . The smile on others' lips my happiness."
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VOICE ONE:
Helen Keller was tall and strong. When she spoke, her face looked very alive. It helped give meaning to her words. She often felt the faces of close friends when she was talking to them to discover their feelings. She and Miss Sullivan both were known for their sense of humor. They enjoyed jokes and laughing at funny things that happened to themselves or others.
Helen Keller had to work hard to support herself after she finished college. She spoke to many groups around the country. She wrote several books. And she made one movie based on her life. Her main goal was to increase public interest in the difficulties of people with physical problems.
The work Helen Keller and Anne Sullivan did has been written and talked about for many years. Their success showed how people can conquer great difficulties.
Anne Sullivan died in nineteen thirty-six, blind herself. Before Miss Sullivan died, Helen wrote and said many kind things about her.
VOICE TWO:
"It was the genius of my teacher, her sympathy, her love which made my first years of education so beautiful.
My teacher is so near to me that I do not think of myself as apart from her. All the best of me belongs to her. Everything I am today was awakened by her loving touch."
VOICE ONE:
Helen Keller died on June first, nineteen sixty-eight. She was eighty-seven years old. Her message of courage and hope remains.
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VOICE TWO:
You have just heard the last part of the story of Helen Keller. Our Special English program was written by Katherine Clarke and produced by Lawan Davis. I'm Shirley Griffith.
VOICE ONE:
And I'm Ray Freeman. Listen again next week to another PEOPLE IN AMERICA program on the Voice of America.
| Carl Rowan, 1925-2000: First Black Director of US Information Agency | |
| 31 October 2009 |
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VOICE ONE:
I’m Shirley Griffith.
VOICE TWO:
And I’m Doug Johnson with the VOA Special English program PEOPLE IN AMERICA. Today, we tell about the life of writer and reporter, Carl Rowan. He was one of the most honored reporters in the United States.
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VOICE ONE:
Carl Rowan was known for the powerful stories that he wrote for major newspapers. His columns were published in more than one hundred newspapers across the United States. He was the first black newspaper columnist to have his work appear in major newspapers.
Carl Rowan called himself a newspaperman. Yet, he was also a writer of best-selling books. He wrote about the lives of African-American civil rights leader Reverend Martin Luther King Junior and United States Supreme Court Justice Thurgood Marshall.
Carl Rowan also was a radio broadcaster and a popular public speaker. For thirty years, he appeared on a weekly television show about American politics.
VOICE TWO:
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| Carl Rowan |
Mister Rowan opened many doors for African Americans. He was the first black deputy Secretary of State in the administration of President John F. Kennedy. And he was the first black director of the United States Information Agency which at the time supervised the Voice of America.
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VOICE ONE:
Carl Rowan was born in nineteen twenty-five in the southern city of Ravenscroft, Tennessee. He grew up during the Great Depression, one of the worst economic times in the United States. His family was very poor. His father stacked wood used for building, when he had work. His mother worked cleaning the homes of white people when she could. The Rowan family had no electricity, no running water, no telephone and no radio. Carl said he would sometimes steal food or drink warm milk from the cows on nearby farms.
The Rowans did not even have a clock. As a boy, Carl said he knew if it was time to go to school by the sound of a train. He said if the train was late, he was late.
VOICE TWO:
Growing up, Carl had very little hope for any change. There were not many jobs for blacks in the South. The schools were not good. Racial tensions were high. Laws were enforced to keep blacks and whites separate.
It was a teacher who urged Carl to make something of himself. Bessie Taylor Gwynn taught him to believe he could be a poet or a writer. She urged him to write as much as possible. She would even get books for him because blacks were banned from public libraries.
Bessie Taylor Gwynn made sure that Carl finished high school. And he did. He graduated at the top of his class.
VOICE ONE:
Carl entered Tennessee State College in nineteen forty-two. He almost had to leave college after the first few months because he did not have enough money. But on the way to catch a bus, his luck changed. He found the twenty dollars he needed to stay in college.
Carl Rowan did so well in college that he was chosen by the United States Navy to become one of the first fifteen black Navy officers. He said that experience changed his life.
Carl served on ships during World War Two. Afterward, he returned to college and graduated from Oberlin College in Ohio. He went on to receive his master’s degree in journalism from the University of Minnesota.
VOICE TWO:
In nineteen forty-eight, Carl Rowan became a reporter for the Minneapolis Tribune newspaper in Minnesota. He was one of the first black reporters to write for a major daily newspaper.
As a young reporter, he covered racial tensions in the South during the civil rights movement. In nineteen fifty-six, he traveled to the Middle East to cover the war over the Suez Canal. He also reported from Europe, India and other parts of Asia. He won several major reporting awards.
VOICE ONE:
Mister Rowan’s reports on race relations in the South interested President John F. Kennedy. In nineteen sixty-one, President Kennedy appointed Mister Rowan deputy assistant Secretary of State. He served as a delegate to the United Nations during the Cuban missile crisis in nineteen sixty-two. Mister Rowan later was appointed ambassador to Finland.
During his years in President Kennedy’s administration, Carl Rowan got to know Lyndon B. Johnson. Lyndon Johnson became president after President Kennedy was assassinated in nineteen sixty-three.
In nineteen sixty-four, President Johnson named Carl Rowan director of the United States Information Agency. The position made him the highest level African American in the United States government. Mister Rowan said being chosen to head the United States Information Agency and the Voice of America was one of the great honors of his life.
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VOICE TWO:
In nineteen sixty-five, Carl Rowan left the government and started writing for newspapers. He wrote a column that told his opinions about important social, economic and political issues. It appeared several times a week in a number of newspapers. Radio and television jobs followed.
Mister Rowan often wrote intensely about race relations. Yet, he wrote with more feeling about one subject than any other: that education and hard work will help young African Americans move forward.
Carl Rowan was angered by the ideas of some young blacks. He said they believed that to study hard and perform well in school was “acting white.” He deplored the idea that excellence is for whites only.
VOICE ONE:
In nineteen eighty-seven, Mister Rowan created a program called “Project Excellence.” The program rewards black students who do well in school. Over the years, the program has provided millions of dollars to help African American students get money for college.
VOICE ONE:
Throughout his life, Carl Rowan was a strong voice for racial justice in America. Yet, he also demanded excellence from other black Americans. He wrote about wrongdoing within the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People. The NAACP fights for the civil rights of African Americans. Mister Rowan’s columns led to the resignation of its chairman and helped speed the organization’s financial recovery.
VOICE TWO:
Carl Rowan lived with his wife, Vivien Murphy, in a large house in Washington, D.C. They had three children and four grandchildren.
He had been a strong supporter of gun control laws. But in nineteen eighty-eight, he was charged for firing a gun that he did not legally own. He shot and wounded a teenager who was on his property illegally. Rowan was arrested and tried. During the trial, he argued that he had the right to use whatever means necessary to protect himself and his family.
The jury failed to reach a decision in the case.
In nineteen ninety-one, Carl Rowan wrote a book about his life called “Breaking Barriers.” Several years later, he wrote a book called “The Coming Race War in America.” The book describes the exploding anger between blacks and whites and the possibility of a future race war. Some people praised the book. Others thought it was harmful and irresponsible.
VOICE ONE:
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Carl Rowan used simple words when he spoke, yet he was very direct. He was criticized sometimes for that. Some people thought that his ideas were too liberal. Others thought he was too moderate. But most people thought his stories generally were very fair.
Mister Rowan talks about his life in his book, “Breaking Barriers”:
CARL ROWAN: "The barriers that were up against blacks getting into the field of communications. When I went in you could count on the fingers of one hand the number of blacks with full-fledged jobs on daily newspapers. Today you've got blacks not only on all kinds of newspapers but on TV screens and on radio, public relations jobs in great corporations, and that is an area of progress that I think I helped to open up a little bit."
VOICE TWO:
Carl Rowan died September twenty-third, two thousand, in Washington, D.C. He was seventy-five years old. During the last years of his life, he suffered from diabetes and heart problems. But he never failed to write his newspaper column. He never let bad things slow him down.
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VOICE ONE:
This Special English program was written by Cynthia Kirk. I’m Shirley Griffith.
VOICE TWO:
And I’m Doug Johnson. Listen again next week for another PEOPLE IN AMERICA program on the Voice of America.