I Found Some Extremely Rare Rutherford Recordings (page 2)

Nosferatu

Under The Radar,

That's pretty much what I'm planning on doing. I'll probably get around to making something to play these with this week. It'll be interesting to hear what Rutherford wanted to tell people over the airwaves.

dropoffyourkeylee

I'd like to hear one, just to get an idea of what they were saying back then.

When I was a kid in the '70s, there were some recordings (not Rutherford) that the WT produced that were played on the radio. They were short conversations between two individuals, one asking questions about soul, hellfire, etc with simplistic answers and then some type of contact information. I'm not sure when that stopped, but it must have been '71 or '72 that I remember.

Nathan Natas

DAY-um!! Great find! Is there a date on these, or can you guess an approximate date?

Nosferatu

Nathan, I have no clue what the date on these is. I'm currently transferring them, but can't understand them because I have to play them backwards to get them transferred. I'll find out once I reverse the audio.

Nosferatu

Okay, here's what I've been able to gather from these records with regards to the date...

Rutherford mentions that Jehovah's people will be going to heaven to live in everlasting peace. He does NOT mention that they will be living forever on the earth. Therefore, this places these records at a date earlier than 1935.

I also find it interesting that Rutherford tells the listeners about the JWs who are going door to door. The fact that these records are made for radio makes them quite an interesting listen.

As a side note, one of them has quite a bit of damage, making only about half the record audible.

Nosferatu

Now that I know a bit more about these recordings (solely from transferring and listening to them), I was able to dig up a bit more information on them from this site:

http://watchtowerdocuments.org/history-of-wbbr/

Radio programs occupied much of Rutherford’s time and he was unable to travel or organize conventions in various parts of the earth. So in 1931, the WTS decided to present transcribed programs. Two hundred and fifty stations were organized to present fifteen-minute transcriptions made by Rutherford at his convenience, and played by the radio stations at times they chose.
In 1932 this radio service (called the Wax Chain) was expanded to 340 stations. By 1933, the peak year, 408 stations were being used to carry the program to six continents, and 23,783 separate Bible talks were broadcast, most of them being these fifteen-minute electrical transcriptions.

In other words, there are theoretically around 408 copies of these records made. Most of them were likely tossed by the radio stations by the time they were finished with them. It's entirely possible that I have the only existing copies of these three speeches.

punkofnice

I have a CD with a load of Fudge Boozerford,s disgusting rants on. It's somewhere in the garage. Blowed if I'm going to listen to them. I've suffered enough at the hands of that vile cult.

Phizzy

I have a number of Records, 78 RPM, that have Rutherford's ravings on, I also have a record Player as used by J.W's here in the U.K to play these on people's door steps. Inside it has a plate that says it is a Watchtower Inc. player.

I really must get around to putting them on E-bay, and pick up a few quid. I think the player, with the records, will be popular with a weird kind of collector.

I listened briefly to some of them back when they came in to my possession , probably around 40 or more years ago, I was laughing like a drain at them, as to me, Rutherford sounded JUST like W.C Fields !

I think here a W.C Fields quote is appropriate : " The best thing a woman ever did for me, was to drive me to drink".

dropoffyourkeylee

Back in the days when there was no TV, and Radio was The source of comedy, drama, and news, Rutherford was somewhat well known across the country (US) based on the radio speeches. He had a rivalry and mutual hatred for Father Coughlin. They were divisive times through the depression leading up to WW2.

road to nowhere

Phizzy

I always thunk they look alike too. Need a colorized picture to see if there is a big red schnoz.

I Found Some Extremely Rare Rutherford Recordings

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