Walter Cronkite, the Voice of the 20th Century

The 25th anniversary of recording the voice of Walter Cronkite on cylinder on at CBS Television Studios NYC January 21, 2000.

The Edison Recording Project made a major coup twenty five years ago on recording on wax cylinder the "voice of the 20th century", the one and only Walter Cronkite (1916 - 2009)

We recorded him at his offices at CBS studios in NYC. He was a charming and very lovely man.

We spend about two hours chatting, recording, singing, and harmonizing too.

His history is amazing, here's a bit.....

Walter Cronkite was born in St. Joseph, Missouri on November 1, 1916 and lived in Kansas City, Missouri until the age of ten, when his father moved the family to Houston.

Cronkite dropped out of college in the fall of 1935 after starting a series of newspaper reporting jobs. At this point, Cronkite got his first taste of broadcast journalism. He became a radio announcer for WKY in Oklahoma City, Oklahoma. The next year, he was hired at KCMO radio station in Kansas City, Missouri as the sole member of the entire news and sports departments.

Cronkite joined the United Press, an international news agency and wire service, in 1937.

In 1939, Walter was sent overseas to cover the events of World War II where he became known as one of the best American war reporters. In his time overseas, Cronkite covered important events such as the Normany Invasion, the Seige of London, the North African campaigns, and the Battle of the Buldge during his time with the United Press.

Cronkite then was one of eight journalists who were chosen by the United States Army Air Forces to fly bombing raids over Germany in a B-17 Flying Fortress.  Reporting under fire by the Nazis as a member of a group of journalists called .. “The Writing 69th”.

After the war was won, he covered the Nuremberg Trials and continued to work as the United Press’ main reporter in Moscow for two more years from 1946 to 1948.

Cronkite joined CBS News in its new television division in 1950 after being recruited by the famous Edward R. Murrow.

Cronkite began to work at WTOP-TV, the CBS affiliate in Washington, D.C.

From 1953 to 1957, Cronkite hosted the CBS program "You Are There", which reenacted historical events using the format of an old news report.

Cronkite was also the lead broadcaster of CBS’s coverage of the 1960 Winter Olympics. It was the first time ever that an event like the olympics was televised in the United States.

On April 16, 1962, Cronkite became the Anchorman of the CBS Evening News, a job for which would transform him into an american icon.

Cronkite was in the right place at the right time;  a year after becoming anchor the program expanded from 15 minutes to an unprecedented 30 minutes. Walter Cronkite had become the anchorman for American network televisions first nightly half-hour news program. In an era where ABC, NBC, and CBS were the only broadcast networks, Cronkite had become the predominant voice and face of american news media. This exposure granted him unparalleled influence over the American public.

After reporting on the Apollo 11 and Apollo 13 moon missions, Cronkite received the best ratings of all the network anchors, and made CBS the most-watched of the moon landing broadcasts in 1969. I very well remember I was one of them watching. Incidently, this project would not only record Cronkite, but one of the astronauts of the Apollo 11 mission, Buzz Aldrin.

Cronkite is the broadcast journalist by which all others will forever be compared. It is somewhat astonishing to believe today that Cronkite, a news anchor, was surveyed as “the most trusted man in America”.

Cronkite trained himself to speak only 124 words per minute, about 40 less than the national average, to help viewers understand him. In Cronkite’s eyes, it was his job to report the news, not what he thought of the news.

Cronkite is famous not only for his impartiality and journalistic integrity, but the few recorded instances of emotion he expressed on air. These instances, including the moon landing, assassination of JFK, and his editorial about the stalemate in Vietnam humanized the Anchorman, and helped earn him the fond nickname of, “Uncle Walter”. Americans really felt as if Cronkite was a member of their family, and for good reason, for 20 years nearly 25 million americans tuned into CBS everynight, to hear Uncle Walter report the days news.

While chatting with me, he mentioned his speaking qualities this way .."I was born in Missouri and moved to Texas, and I had a father who would wrap me on the knuckles if I showed one sense of twang. So I was very careful with each word that I spoke." As Cronkite’s secretary said to me " Walter gives life to each word."

In closing I must say he was a gentleman of the highest order and a most remarkable individual. He was well acquainted with early recording as he said to me when we made the cylinder ..."My grandparents had Edison machines, and my parents were a little more modern, and had Victor machines. But it didn't matter where I was, as I was the one who had to wind them!"

After saying this, he looked at me and said "Let's have some Edison entertainment" I put on this recording of "By the light of the silvery moon." This was sung by Ada Jones and chorus. As soon as it started Walter started conducting us and while he danced a little we had a grand sing a long with Walter who sang with a great big smile on his face.  After it was all done and over and the crew had left. We sat alone in his office and chatted. He told me he had so much fun and that he was glad I was promoting Edison's legacy. And how honored he was to be recorded. Which he then wrote in this short note to me. We chatted about Gen Patton, as he knew him and interviewed him. We chatted about the president's and many others which I should in time write about his views.

Now a days, there is a Walter Cronkite Award, but for me I'm much happier having that warm endorsement from that charming man himself.

And that's the way it was on January 21, 2000.

Jack Stanley