HOST:
Welcome to AMERICAN MOSAIC, VOA’s radio magazine in SpecialEnglish.
(THEME)
This is Doug Johnson. On our program today …
We play songs by Chet Atkins…
answer a question about two American inventors…
and, tell about a popular rock carving that has come to representthe American Southwest.
Kokopeli
HOST:
Almost two-thousand years ago, a Native American used a sharprock to cut a picture into a larger rock. He cut the image of ahappy man playing a simple instrument called a flute. Members of theHopi Tribe called this imaginary man Kokopeli. Shep O’Neal tells usmore.
ANNCR:
The old rock images of Kokopeli can be found in an area extendingfrom Mexico to Arizona and further west to California. It is alwayseasy to recognize him, a happy little man playing his flute withboth hands. He usually has long hair or feathers that bend back fromhis head. He usually has one foot in the air. He seems to bedancing. It is very difficult not to smile when looking at the imageof Kokopeli.
To the Hopi Indians, Kokopeli represented happiness, joy andfertility. They believed this imaginary little man talked to thewind and the sky. When he played his flute, the sun would come out,snow would melt, grass would grow and birds would sing. The cold ofwinter would turn to the warmth of spring. All the animals wouldgather to hear his songs. He was also known to play tricks onpeople. And he was a teacher and storyteller.
The Hopi believed that Kokopeli visited villages carrying seedsto plant corn. Everyone sang and danced through the night. Whenpeople got up the next morning they found the corn was almost fullgrown and Kokopeli was gone. They might also find that many of theyoung women of the village were pregnant.
In recent years, the image of Kokopeli has been used to representthe American Southwest. Several different native American tribesfrom the Southwest make rings, pins and bracelets that carry theimage of Kokopeli. There is more than one hotel named Kokopeli. Youcan buy T-shirts that carry his image. He is also found on women’sdresses. An eating place in Virginia that serves southwestern foodhas an alcoholic drink called Kokopeli Beer. Kokopeli can be foundin many different shapes and sizes in almost any gift store in theSouthwestern United States.
If you would like to see a picture of Kokopeli, use a computer tosearch for his name. It is spelled K-O-K-O-P-E-L-I. Again, it isK-O-K-O-P-E-L-I. And when you see his happy little image, you toowill smile.
Farnsworth & Zworykin
HOST:
Our VOA listener question this week comes in an e-mail fromVenezuela. Luis Fernandez asks about two inventors, Philo Farnsworthand Vladimir Zworykin (ZWAWR uh kihn). Both were involved in thedevelopment of television.
Vladimir Zworykin was born in Russia in Eighteen-Eighty-Nine. Hecame to the United States in Nineteen-Nineteen. He worked as aresearch engineer for the Westinghouse Electric Company. He inventedthe first successful television camera tube inNineteen-Twenty-Three. He also invented one of the first televisionreceivers.
Later he worked for the Radio Corporation of America. He improvedtelevision technology and helped develop the electron microscope.The United States government gave him the National Medal of Science,the highest science award, in Nineteen-Sixty-Six. Vladimir Zworykindied in Nineteen-Eighty-Two.
Philo Farnsworth was born in the western state of Utah inNineteen-Oh-Six. He was much younger than Mister Zworykin. Yet healso developed an electronic television system in theNineteen-Twenties. He was the first to show a television image onhis system. Philo Farnsworth invented more than one-hundred devicesthat helped make modern television possible. He also developed earlyradar. And he worked on developing peaceful uses for atomic energy.He died in Nineteen-Seventy-One.
During the Nineteen-Thirties, Philo Farnsworth and VladimirZworykin were involved in a dispute about the invention oftelevision. The Radio Corporation of America began legal actionagainst Mister Farnsworth. It said Mister Zworykin had inventedtelevision before Mister Farnsworth. Mister Zworykin was working forR-C-A at the time.
The company wanted the right to produce and market televisions.Philo Farnsworth’s high school science teacher was able to prove incourt that Philo had the idea for television when he was onlyfourteen years old. So Philo Farnsworth won the legal action and theright to own the invention of television.
However, he did not have the money or support to build atelevision industry. It was the Nineteen-Fifties before televisionbecame a major force in American life. Vladimir Zworykin and R-C-Awere the names connected to the new industry.
Chet Atkins
HOST:
American guitar player Chet Atkins died last month of cancer. Hewas known for his ability as a musician and for his work in thecountry music industry. Shirley Griffity tells us about him.
ANNCR:
Chester Burton Atkins was born in the southern state of Tennesseein Nineteen-Twenty-Four. His father and grandfather were musicians.
Chet Atkins performed on local radio programs. Then he played forprofessional singers like the Carter Sisters. He started recordingon his own in Nineteen-Forty-Seven. One of his first hit records wasthe song “Country Gentleman.”
((CIUT 1: COUNTRY GENTLEMAN))
Chet Atkins recorded seventy-five albums of country music. Hesold more than seventy-five-million albums. He also played onhundreds of hit records, including those by Elvis Presley, HankWilliams, and The Everly Brothers. His own biggest hit was thissong, “Yakety Axe”, recorded in Nineteen-Sixty-Five.
((CUT 2: YAKETY AXE))
Chet Atkins is remembered in the country music industry forsaving country music after rock and roll became extremely popular.He produced country records that were popular with an expandedaudience. He helped many young country music singers, includingDolly Parton, Charley Pride and Waylon Jennings. He also won manyawards, including fourteen music industry Grammy awards. We leaveyou now with the song that won Chet Atkins his last Grammy award inNineteen-Ninety-Six. It is called “Jam Man.”
((CUT 3: JAM MAN))
HOST:
This is Doug Johnson. I hope you enjoyed our program today. And Ihope you will join us again next week for AMERICAN MOSAIC-VOA’sradio magazine in Special English.
This AMERICAN MOSAIC program was written by Nancy Steinbach andPaul Thompson. Our studio engineer was Skip Sisk. And our producerwas Paul Thompson.