When the Apollo 11 crew returned home they splashed down 900 miles southwest of Hawaii in the North Pacific Ocean. There was a remote possibility that they’d brought home some contaminants so they put on special Biological Isolation Garments, got any nasty space germs scrubbed off, and were hoisted aboard the USS Hornet aircraft carrier. There they were escorted to a Mobile Quarantine Facility where they would stay in quarantine for 3 weeks. NASA would employ this practice throughout the Apollo 14 mission, which proved the Moon was sterile. While in quarantine the men talked to their families, friends, even President Nixon. Believe it or not, they also had to fill out customs forms, declaring the roughly fifty pounds of moon rocks, dust and samples taken from the lunar surface.

You’ve been listening to Nani wale e ka mahina (a chant about the beauty of the moon at night) by Al Kealoha Perry and his Singing Surfriders.

Check out this amazing selection of photos of the Apollo 11 Mission from NASA. And here’s a link to that Customs form!

Brett Barry:

Mike Tirico has covered a diverse array of what the sports world offers, from Opens in both golf and tennis, soccer’s World Cup, NCAA and NBA basketball, to Monday Night Football. And he’s covered them as well as anyone, receiving National Sportscaster of the Year honors in 2010. Here the versatile broadcaster expounds on perhaps the most well-rounded athlete in Syracuse University history.

Mike Tirico:

If we didn’t have such concretely-documented proof of Jim Brown’s athletic prowess you might think it the stuff of legend. Put aside his dominant football career, one that extended into the NFL and its Hall of Fame. He also lettered in track, basketball and lacrosse, and was considered one of the greatest to ever play that sport. His statistics remain nearly-incomprehensible, such as the NCAA record 43 points he scored in a single football game…but the number he’s most known for among Syracuse fans is, of course, 44. He wasn’t the first to wear it, but he made it the mantel, carried later by such greats as Ernie Davis and Floyd Little.

You’ve been listening to the SU fight song, Down the Field, by the University Band and Robert Chenoweth, an RCA record from 1951.

Read about Brown’s sparring session with one of boxing’s greats right here.

Today we examine Arthur Murray: Dance instructor, entrepreneur extraordinaire and…wedding crasher?

Arthur Murray taught millions of Americans to dance, through the chain of studios that bear his name nation-wide, and by his mail-order lessons. You’re listening to one of those, Arthur Murray teaches the Fox-Trot.

Turns out William Jennings Bryan had something to do with Murray’s success, as he jokingly said: “You know, I have a fine idea on how you can collect your money. Just teach ’em with the left foot and don’t tell ’em what to do with the right foot until they pay up!”

From this, Murray got the idea of teaching by paper-footprints….and the rest is mail-order history.

So how’d HE get so good? The old adage…practice, practice, practice. But he did his practicing at neighborhood weddings…whether he was invited or not.

You’re listening to Dame Nellie Melba’s Farewell speech, recorded at Covent Garden in 1926. And,

You’re on the Sound Beat

Andre Escoffier would’ve cleaned up on the late 1800’s version of Top Chef. The French chef extraordinaire was known for his creative haute cuisine, and for naming his dishes after stars that frequented his restaurants. There was no bigger operatic star of the time than Aussie-born Nellie Melba…that’s right, as in Melba toast and Peach melba. While performing the Wagnerian opera Lohengrin at Covent Garden, Melba invited Escoffier…he responded with a dish that mimicked a boat in the shape of a swan that appeared in the production. The dessert featured peaches over vanilla ice cream, in a dish served on a carved-ice swan, and called “Peche Cygne” or, “peach with a swan”. He’d later add a raspberry sauce…and Peach Melba was born..uh, hold the swan.

Image Credit: “Covent Garden Theatre 1827-28” by en:Thomas H. Shepherd (1792–1864), engraved by John Rolph (1799–1862) – Metropolitan improvements or London in the nineteenth century: being a series of views, of the new and most interesting objects in the British metropolis & its vicinity; from original drawings, with historical, topographical & critical illustrations by James Elmes. Licensed under Public domain via Wikimedia Commons

Whew.

You’re listening to the Carter Family’s rendition of “Honey in the Rock”, a Coral Record from 1949, and you’re on the Sound Beat.

Frederick A. Graves originally wrote the song in 1895, but his version was a bit, well, heavy…A.P. Carter then rewrote it in 1937 to better fit the Carter Family’s repertoire. In short, he focused more on the “honey and the salvation” than the” blood and the sins”. Probably a good move, sales-wise.

The Carter Family recorded for over 30 years, helping to create and then redefine country music, and were inducted into its Hall of Fame in 1970.

This episode was co-written by Syracuse University Honors student Jack McCormack, part of the Sound Beat Class Partnership.

Learn how students are interacting with historic sound right now at Soundbeat.org

You’re listening to the Five Satins with In the Still of the Night, an Embassy 78 from 1956 and….

You’re on the Sound Beat

Nighttime is often the right time for thoughtful reflection. Especially when one is on guard duty in the Army. Such is the case with this song, written by Fred Parris while on active duty. He and the Satins recorded it in the basement of the St. Bernadette church in their hometown of New Haven, Connecticut. It was a big hit, but Parris didn’t get to celebrate long. He would be called back to active duty shortly after the release.

Just how big a hit was it? It’s the only song to have made the Billboard top 100 3 times…that’s the same artist with the same version. It debuted at #24 in 1956, was released again in 1960, reaching #81, and then a year later it reached #99.

It’s also talked about as the origins of doo-wop. Find out more right here.

(Photo taken at La Silla Observatory)

You’re listening to one of the most distinctive signature sounds in all of recorded music, and…

You’re on the Sound Beat.

That telltale whoop belongs to Sonny Terry, one of the most influential harmonica players of all time. Blind, but not from birth, Terry lost his sight one eye at a time, first in early childhood, and the second in his late teens. He recorded “Whoopin’ the Blues” with Brownie McGhee in 1947 for Capitol Records. The Terry/McGhee partnership was one of the most prolific and is one of the most revered in blues history.

Want to see them in action?

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=34FWANCq6_0

Photo credit: Ian Chadwick

Between them, Bing Crosby and Bob Hope dominated tv, records, radio and the driving range.  But their film careers were made during the “Road” features. The 7 total films were released between 1940 and 1962, and also starred Dorothy Lamour. They were, more than anything else, conduits for ad-libbed lines and playful barbs Bing and Bob would sling at one another. Here they are with “Put It There, Pal” from “Road To Utopia” in 1946.

The films have drawn homage from musical group “They Might Be Giants”, TV show Family Guy,and, of course, the 80’s comedy classic “Spies Like Us”. What was so special about that connection? It’s all summed up right here: