By PAUL GINSBERG
At the end of a long and winding path, I found myself in a place to do something really interesting for The Players!
I was always a nerd. When other kids were outside playing ball, I was in my basement building television cameras, a home-made answering machine, and a tic-tac-toe machine that beat me at every game. I later smashed it to show it who was boss.
This all led to degrees in electrical engineering, and a career, first, in building recording studios. Then I spent 50 years as a forensic audio expert, enhancing undercover conversations for the C.I.A., F.B.I., U.S Senate, D.E.A., I.R.S., A.T.F., Secret Service, and Homeland Security. I was also retained to clarify a number of black-box recordings from air crashes, along with September 11 recordings from the World Trade Center.
Somehow I became regarded as the leading independent expert in this specialized field, appearing on CNN whenever there was a newsworthy recording.
So, when I first visited the Players as a reciprocal member, even before I applied for membership, and when I first heard that Edwin Booth’s voice had been recorded by Thomas Edison on a wax cylinder, resulting in a low, muddy recording, I knew that fate had led me to the right place. I was determined to enhance Booth’s voice so that he could be heard and understood.
Once I heard that Booth and Edison were contemporaries I imagined the two of them at 16 Gramercy Park South, sitting in front of the fire after dinner, enjoying cigars. And then I imagined Edwin’s cigar going out, and him saying, “Tom, have you got a light?” whereupon Edison replied, “Say, that gives me an idea." (I couldn’t resist.)
The 1890 recordings were, by our digital standards, primitive, with limited frequency range due to limits of vibration of the recording needle used to capture the vibrations of his voice. There were also a number of scratches, clicks and pops, as well as a very high level of background noise. Thanks to state-of-the-art processing techniques, after considerable experimentation, Edwin’s voice finally came through, and there he was, 134 years later, delivering his monologue from Othello.
I emailed the enhanced file to Elizabeth Jackson of the Foundation for Theatre Education, and she immediately said that she wanted to present this recording to the membership. And that’s exactly what we did. Stay tuned to Brief Chronicles for the rest of the story…..
Paul Ginsberg is a leading forensic audio expert specializing in clarification of undercover and aircraft black-box recordings. He has participated in over 2,000 trials. He recently used his expertise to enhance recordings of Edwin Booth recorded on wax cylinders by Thomas Edison. Paul loves family, friends, comedy, magic, pasta, wine, and chocolate. He had a pet peeve but it died. He can usually be found in the grill telling funny stories.
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