Radio: Sounds of Home

During World War II, the U.S. Armed Forces radio piped overseas such native noises as Lana Turner’s sigh, an umpire shouting “Play Ball!” at Ebbets Field, the whimper of a puppy. Last week, from Gibraltar to Korea, British soldiers & sailors were also hearing the sounds of home. A BBC overseas program called You Asked for It carried such nostalgic sounds as the chime of Southampton’s Civic Center clock striking 8, the rumble of the Welsh express going through the Severn tunnel, the Dunstable Salvation Army band blowing itself “pink in the face beside the traffic lights on a Saturday evening.”

A sailor in Malta asked for the roar of the crowd when his soccer team (Tottenham Hotspurs) scored a goal; another wanted to hear his favorite pub owner calling the traditional closing-time chant: “Time, gentlemen, please!”; an airman asked for a “cockney barrow boy selling his wares.” Oddest request came from a lonesome telegrapher in South Africa: he wanted to hear again the thunder of airplanes roaring low over his home just before they landed at London Airport.

Most frequent request was for the sound of relatives’ voices. Producer Leslie Bridgmont firmly said no. “If we start that,” he explained, “we’ll wind up with a string of elderly ladies quavering ‘Hello, Frank.’ “