Topical Guide 883
Mark Dorset
Performance
Leaving Small’s Hotel, Chapter 4:
THAT NIGHT, however, I had my biggest audience so far. It was a Friday night, so we had a few extra people for dinner, beyond the hotel guests, and there were even a few people who in response to Albertine’s advertising had come out in their own boats just to hear my reading. I was cheered by this show of support, and I think I did a good job with episode four of Dead Air, “Masters of the Arts.”
Here is Kraft’s reading of the episode from Chipps & Company’s 1999 series of readings from Leaving Small’s Hotel for LTV Studios:
Audio Equipment: Reel-to-Reel Tape Recorder
Leaving Small’s Hotel, Chapter 4:
When I was in shooting position, I could also see under the living room sofa, and one rainy day I discovered a tape recorder under there. This was a surprise, because almost no one had a tape recorder in those days. They were specialized gear, little used by the general public but widely used, of course, by spies.
The tape recorder would have been something like this:
And the tape, reels, and boxes would have been something like this:
See also:
Audio Equipment: “Unbreakable” Records TG 115
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You can listen to the episodes on the Personal History podcast. Begin at the beginning or scroll through the episodes to find what you’ve missed. The Substack podcast reading of Little Follies begins here; Herb ’n’ Lorna begins here; Reservations Recommended begins here; Where Do You Stop? begins here; What a Piece of Work I Am begins here; At Home with the Glynns begins here; Leaving Small’s Hotel begins here.
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