HOST:
Welcome to AMERICAN MOSAIC – VOA’s radio magazine in SpecialEnglish.
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This is Doug Johnson. On our program today:
We play music by Lionel Hampton …
Answer a question about the man whose picture is seen at eatingplaces all over the world …
And tell about a celebration of Native Americans.
Pow Wow on the Mall
HOST:
A Native American powwow is a celebration of ancient traditions.A large one is being held this weekend near the Capitol building inWashington, D.C. Mary Tillotson tells us about it.
ANNCR:
The National Museum of theAmerican Indian will not open to visitors for a year. But it alreadyis providing activities for American Indians and the public. Thisweekend it will hold a national powwow to honor Native people andtheir traditions. There will be music, dancing and American Indianfoods. The celebration will be held on the grassy Mall next to theunfinished museum.
Powwows are social gatherings of Native Americans who compete toperform dances started centuries ago by their ancestors. The dancerswear colorful traditional clothes. They move to the music of drumsand singing. Two groups of drummers will provide the strong beatsfor the dancers this weekend. One group of drummers are BlackfeetIndians from Washington state. The other are Kiowa (KAI–oh–wa) fromOklahama.
The Smithsonian’s powpow will include dancers representinghundreds of tribes. They will compete in seven traditional kinds ofdances. These include men’s grass dancing, women’s jingle dress, anda tiny tots dance for children under five years of age. Judges willchoose the winners. Almost eighty-thousand dollars in prize moneywill be given.
George Horse Capture is advisor to the director of the NationalMuseum of the American Indian. He says the powwow may have begunwith the Omaha tribe as a victory dance by warriors. It was firstcalled the grass dance. By the middle eighteen-seventies, othertribes began learning the dance, changing it to meet their needs.
George Horse Capture says that the cultural life of many tribestoday centers on the powwow. Members make great efforts to attendtheir tribe’s yearly event. It is a time to honor special members,to remember those who have died, and to celebrate the first time achild dances.
Thousands of American Indians from tribes in the United Statesand Canada are expected to attend the powwow in Washington thisweekend. Thousands of other people will come to watch as the dancersand drummers honor their ancestors.
Colonel Sanders
HOST:
Our VOA listener question this week comes from Bulgaria. SvetlinaKirilova wants to know about the picture of the smiling, old man shesees at every Kentucky Fried Chicken restaurant.
Kentucky Fried Chicken restaurants can be found in eighty-twocountries around the world. That smiling, old man shown in each ofthem is the American man who started the business, Colonel HarlandSanders.
Harland Sanders was born in themiddle western state of Indiana in eighteen-ninety. He began workingat the age of ten for two dollars a month on a farm. He was poor formuch of his life. He held many different jobs. He was a farmer and astreet car operator. He worked on the railroad and on river boats.He studied law and was a businessman. He was also a soldier for sixmonths, but not a colonel.
At the age of forty, Harland Sanders began cooking for travelerswho stopped at his gas station in the southern state of Kentucky.More and more people began arriving just for the good food. So hestarted a small restaurant across the street.
It was there that he developed a new way to cook a special kindof chicken. He became famous in the state of Kentucky. The governormade him a Kentucky Colonel to honor him for his work innineteen-thirty-five.
Years later, in nineteen-fifty-two, Harland Sanders beganteaching other restaurant owners his secret method of cookingchicken. He drove across the country, cooking chicken for restaurantowners. If they liked the chicken, they would agree to a businessdeal and change their restaurants to ones that served the specialchicken. Colonel Sanders called the restaurants Kentucky FriedChicken. He started the business when he was sixty-five years old.
By nineteen-sixty-four, more than six-hundred restaurants werecooking chicken using Harland Sanders’ secret method. He then soldthe company for two-million dollars. But he remained its spokesmanuntil his death in nineteen-eighty. Today, Kentucky Fried Chickenhas grown to become one of the largest food service systems in theworld.
Lionel Hampton
HOST:
American jazz musician Lionel Hampton died last month in New YorkCity following a heart attack. He was ninety-four years old. LionelHampton is considered one of the greatest jazz musicians of alltime. Shep O’Neal tells us about him.
ANNCR:
Lionel Hampton was born inLouisville, Kentucky, but later moved with his family to Chicago,Illinois. He joined his first band as a teenager. Later, he traveledwith many bands, and learned to play an electronic instrument calledthe vibraphone. Listen as he plays it in this famous recording,”Memories of You”.
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In the nineteen-thirties, Lionel Hampton joined Benny Goodman’sjazz group. It was the first time that blacks and whites performedtogether in a major musical group. Here, the group plays a songalways linked to Lionel Hampton because he wrote it. Hampton oncesaid he probably performed this song more than three-hundred times ayear for fifty years. It is “Flyin’ Home.”
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Lionel Hampton wrote more than two-hundred pieces of music andtraveled all over the world playing them. He continued to performmost of his life. He won many awards, including the National Medalof Arts. He also established music schools and helped students payfor their educations. We leave you now with another Lionel Hamptonjazz recording, “Stomp.”
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HOST:
Every two years or so, AMERICAN MOSAIC has included a seriesabout how foreign students can attend college in the United States.This year, the series will be heard on the weekly EDUCATION REPORTinstead. The foreign student series will begin on the EDUCATIONREPORT next Thursday, September nineteenth.
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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 Caty Weaver and NancySteinbach. Our studio engineer was Gary Spiezler. And our producerwas Paul Thompson.