Last eye witness on "I have a secret"

[Juan Marrero]

I searched the topic to see if had been covered but, please, excuse me if it, nevertheless, already has been discussed.

I've watched on YouTube the old television clip of the nonagenarian who appeared (shortly before his death) on the ancient "I've got a secret" television program from the 1950's.

Tbe 150th anniversay made, for me, the events of April 1865 seem very distant, but watching this old gentleman talk about his presence at Ford's Theater had the converse effect. I guess we are about 60 years from the time when there was a living memory of AL and nearing, if not exceeding, the time frame when someone living might have had the experience of contact with RTL.

As a non sequitur, I came across sometime back an article saying that computer technology was getting to the point where it might be able to "read" someone's voice from photographs of the individual. I guess if there were enough pictures of a person to create a pretty good 3-D model, the computer might approximate the sound that the person's vocal chords would have made, filling in for regional accents, etc. The article was in connection with having the "Mona Lisa" "speak" after 450 years.

And you know what I am getting at with this. If there were voice recordings of RTL, that too might help with the programming.

[Craig Hipkins]

Juan, Here is a rather interesting article on a possible Abraham Lincoln voice graph recording. I find it highly implausible but intriguing nevertheless. http://www.firstsounds.org/features/lincoln.php

Craig

[historybuff22]

I have a problem with the "last witness to the Lincoln assassination" on I've Have a Secret. If you work out the math, and listen closely to the interview, you'll discover that he was a small child then - under 8 years of age. Two questions:

1) How much will a person remember from when he was under 8 year old at the time and currently (1956) at the time.

2) This interview was more than 75 years after the Lincoln assassination happened. Can anyone,let alone under 8 years old at the time, have even close to recall memory this many years later?

Rick Brown
HistoryBuff.com
A Nonprofit Organization

[John E.]

(05-12-2015 09:21 PM)historybuff22 Wrote:  I have a problem with the "last witness to the Lincoln assassination" on I've Have a Secret. If you work out the math, and listen closely to the interview, you'll discover that he was a small child then - under 8 years of age. Two questions:

1) How much will a person remember from when he was under 8 year old at the time and currently (1956) at the time.

2) This interview was more than 75 years after the Lincoln assassination happened. Can anyone,let alone under 8 years old at the time, have even close to recall memory this many years later?

Rick Brown
HistoryBuff.com
A Nonprofit Organization

Hi Rich,

My father will be 81 this year and at times, has difficulty remembering where he placed his keys or wallet.

But when it comes to Dec. 6, 1941 - he can recall with amazing clarity the day his mother told him to go fetch his father (who was outside doing yard work) to tell him the Japs had bombed Pearl Harbor. It made a huge impact on him when he was 7 years old.

That's just food for thought.

[Hess1865]

This might sound silly, but I still remember the first time I saw a Hitchcock movie.
My mother took me to see 'North By Northwest'.
I was 6 !!
The Mount Rushmore scenes gave me nightmares for a week.

Still one of Hitch's best IMO!!!

[L Verge]

I am 71, and I can remember quite clearly certain things that happened to me at ages 5-6. I have a very clear memory of my father walking across the plaza at Union Station when I was seven. He was in uniform with duffel bag over his shoulder and off to catch a train that would take him to California and then to the Korean War. I remember yelling and crying for him not to leave us.

Also, Mr. Seymour (and I remember seeing that show) did not claim to remember all the details. His clue was that he was an eyewitness to the assassination.

[Juan Marrero]

But when it comes to Dec. 6, 1941 - he can recall with amazing clarity the day his mother told him to go fetch his father (who was outside doing yard work) to tell him the Japs had bombed Pearl Harbor. It made a huge impact on him when he was 7 years old.


I remember a Woody Allen movie set at that time and a ditzy lady character asking "Who's Pearl Harbor?"

---

[
Also, Mr. Seymour (and I remember seeing that show) did not claim to remember all the details. His clue was that he was an eyewitness to the assassination.
[/quote]

Yes that is right, and Mr. Seymour said that he screamed at the moment of the shot, not bcause of the shot, but because his godmother who had taken him to the theater had been fussing with some sort of pin he had been wearing and accidently stuck him at the same moment. He had a vague recall of a man jumping on stage.

[LincolnMan]

(05-14-2015 08:06 AM)Hess1865 Wrote:  This might sound silly, but I still remember the first time I saw a Hitchcock movie.
My mother took me to see 'North By Northwest'.
I was 6 !!
The Mount Rushmore scenes gave me nightmares for a week.

Still one of Hitch's best IMO!!!

Still an absolutely great movie!

[estonensb]

I believe with the the commotion of the event, regardless of him being so young he would be able to remember it for years to come. Being so young and being a witness to the assassination probably had a dramatic effect. Who knows!

[RJNorton]

Elizabeth, thank you for posting your opinion, and welcome to the forum!

[estonensb]

Thank you so much Roger. There are so many interesting posts from everyone; A lot if which I never knew before. I look forward to getting more involved.

[Thomas Kearney]

(05-12-2015 07:37 PM)Craig Hipkins Wrote:  Juan, Here is a rather interesting article on a possible Abraham Lincoln voice graph recording. I find it highly implausible but intriguing nevertheless. http://www.firstsounds.org/features/lincoln.php

Craig

It is unlikely that Lincoln's voice was recorded. But I did find a recording of Edwin Booth reading Othello. It is likely that Booth had his voice recorded.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LM82m1MJn_g

[L Verge]

(05-26-2015 06:20 PM)Thomas Kearney Wrote:  

(05-12-2015 07:37 PM)Craig Hipkins Wrote:  Juan, Here is a rather interesting article on a possible Abraham Lincoln voice graph recording. I find it highly implausible but intriguing nevertheless. http://www.firstsounds.org/features/lincoln.php

Craig

It is unlikely that Lincoln's voice was recorded. But I did find a recording of Edwin Booth reading Othello. It is likely that Booth had his voice recorded.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LM82m1MJn_g

I bet that John Wilkes Booth would have loved to have recorded his voice and political thoughts, but he was dead for years before science got to that point, Tom.

"On April 30, 1877, French poet, humorous writer and inventor Charles Cros submitted a sealed envelope containing a letter to the Academy of Sciences in Paris fully explaining his proposed method, called the paleophone. Though no trace of a working paleophone was ever found, Cros is remembered as the earliest inventor of a sound recording and reproduction machine. The first practical sound recording and reproduction device was the mechanical phonograph cylinder, invented by Thomas Edison in 1877 and patented in 1878.[6] The invention soon spread across the globe and over the next two decades the commercial recording, distribution and sale of sound recordings became a growing new international industry, with the most popular titles selling millions of units by the early 1900s. The development of mass-production techniques enabled cylinder recordings to become a major new consumer item in industrial countries and the cylinder was the main consumer format from the late 1880s until around 1910."

Supposedly, some form of recording was made back in 1857, but they had no way of listening to it to see if it really worked. Edwin Booth did not record Othello until 1890.

[LincolnToddFan]

(05-12-2015 09:21 PM)historybuff22 Wrote:  I have a problem with the "last witness to the Lincoln assassination" on I've Have a Secret. If you work out the math, and listen closely to the interview, you'll discover that he was a small child then - under 8 years of age. Two questions:

1) How much will a person remember from when he was under 8 year old at the time and currently (1956) at the time.

2) This interview was more than 75 years after the Lincoln assassination happened. Can anyone,let alone under 8 years old at the time, have even close to recall memory this many years later?

Rick Brown
HistoryBuff.com
A Nonprofit Organization

I have very distinct memories of when I was two years old, small enough to have my bath in the bathroom sink, and shrieking with terror that I would be sucked down the drain even though my mother was holding me.

I also remember the weekend of the JFK assassination quite well. I was three then.

I believe it's very possible for the Lincoln witness to recall what happened when he was five.

[estonensb]

I found a video clip on YouTube of a recording made in 1933 of Joseph H. Hazleton. He says he was a program boy at Ford's theater and had even talked to Booth on April 14th. From what I'm gathering his statement is quite popular. Has anyone heard of Mr Hazelton before?