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Speaker 1: Welcome to stuff you missed in history class from works

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Speaker 1: dot com. Hello, and welcome to the podcast. I'm Holly

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Speaker 1: Fry and I'm Tracy V. Wilson. Hey, Tracy, do you

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Speaker 1: know how to play the harmonica? Uh? Know? How would

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Speaker 1: be a very generous description. Almost anyone can get a

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Speaker 1: noise out of it. If I may not be melodic,

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Speaker 1: I can put a harmonica in my mouth and cause

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Speaker 1: it to make noise. There you go. Yeah, I'm pretty

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Speaker 1: much the same. That's not an area of musical skill

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Speaker 1: that I have ever developed. Uh. And we're going to

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Speaker 1: talk about harmonicas today and sort of how the harmonica

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Speaker 1: came to be as popular as it is. And we're

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Speaker 1: even going to talk about a couple of sort of

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Speaker 1: important harmonica musicians. Uh. For clarity, the German word harmonica,

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Speaker 1: spelled with a k U is used to apply to

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Speaker 1: several different things. Harmonica is, like we're talking about today,

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Speaker 1: glass harmonicas and accordions. Uh. And the glass harmonica, which

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Speaker 1: Benjamin Franklin played a part in developing, uses a series

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Speaker 1: of glass bowls arranged together and graduated sizes and U

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Speaker 1: uses friction to produce to produce notes. And UH, that's

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Speaker 1: not what we're talking about today though. And as for

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Speaker 1: the accordion, uh, the accordion harmony and the harmonica are

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Speaker 1: two instruments that are kind of intertwined in terms of development.

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Speaker 1: They both appeared on the scene in the eighteen twenties,

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Speaker 1: and they were kind of developed in tandem throughout the

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Speaker 1: eighteen hundreds. But today we're going to talk about the

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Speaker 1: harmonica in the sense of what is sometimes also called

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Speaker 1: a mouth harp. Uh. You know, the probably the image

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Speaker 1: that most people think of when you say the word,

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Speaker 1: and probably like something they had a toy version of

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Speaker 1: as a kid. I love those things. When I was

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Speaker 1: a child, I was a danger to myself and others

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Speaker 1: with my toy harmonicas, some of those toys. I'm like,

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Speaker 1: I did start to put it in my stocking if

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Speaker 1: everybody hates me playing it so much. But there you go.

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Speaker 1: So first, we're just going to kind of talk about

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Speaker 1: harmonicas and and their ancient history roots. Harmonicas are found

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Speaker 1: all over the world and they are part of the

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Speaker 1: music of numerous cultures. And that's do at least in

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Speaker 1: part to the fact that it is an exceptionally portable

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Speaker 1: musical instrument. I mean it's like you have the harmonica

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Speaker 1: because you I don't know the triangle. Yeah, like you can.

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Speaker 1: You can put Papa harmonica in your pocket and off

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Speaker 1: you go. And later on that portability we're going to

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Speaker 1: talk about kind of how that helped it spread. Another

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Speaker 1: part of the harmonicas appeal is it's simplicity. Like we

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Speaker 1: just said, almost anyone can make a noise on it.

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Speaker 1: It creates a sound when air has passed over a

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Speaker 1: metal read that's fixed on one end but not the others,

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Speaker 1: so it allows for vibration. The oldest known harmonica like

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Speaker 1: instrument is the Chinese shung, and one of these was

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Speaker 1: found in the tomb of a fifth century BC emperor

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Speaker 1: of China. The oldest known writing about the instruments goes

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Speaker 1: all the way back to eleven hundred BCS, So these

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Speaker 1: have been around for a really long time. Yeah, we

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Speaker 1: um uh definitely know that they were popular for quite

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Speaker 1: a while in China. And the shung really, if you

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Speaker 1: look at it, it doesn't look that much like a harmonica.

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Speaker 1: It more closely sort of resembles a mini handheld pipe

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Speaker 1: organ in terms of form, But when you hear one played,

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Speaker 1: the audible resemblance between a shung and a harmonica is unmistakable,

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Speaker 1: and we're gonna link to a video in our show

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Speaker 1: notes of someone playing a shong so you can kind

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Speaker 1: of hear it for yourself. Free read. Instruments similar to

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Speaker 1: this young spread all through Southeast Asia and then to

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Speaker 1: Korea and Japan prior to the eighteenth century. Harmonicas appeared

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Speaker 1: in Europe in the seventeen hundreds, but it's not totally

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Speaker 1: clear whether this was descended from the Chinese shung, which

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Speaker 1: was the you know, brought to Europe by a trade

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Speaker 1: and travel or whether they were developed in Europe on

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Speaker 1: their own independently. Yeah, you'll sometimes see it, uh described

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Speaker 1: one way or the other, depending on what history you're reading.

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Speaker 1: Some will say yes, and then Asian instruments like the

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Speaker 1: harmonica traveled into Europe and Europeans were inspired to create

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Speaker 1: their own versions, and others kind of say, we're not

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Speaker 1: entirely clear that that's how it worked. They may have

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Speaker 1: been working on similar instruments can currently before they were

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Speaker 1: exposed to things like the show. But what we do

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Speaker 1: know is that in eighteen twenty Christian Friedrich Lidwig Bushman

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Speaker 1: bundled a group of pitch pipes together into kind of

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Speaker 1: a squarish rectangular shape, creating an instrument that he called

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Speaker 1: an aura. And this instrument could only be played by blowing,

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Speaker 1: so similar to harmonica, but with no option to draw

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Speaker 1: air through the instruments to create tones with an inhale.

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Speaker 1: Scandinavia and Central Europe gave us the first instruments that

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Speaker 1: look like what we think of as a Harmonicas a

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Speaker 1: day mun harmonicas or mouth organs appeared in Vienna and

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Speaker 1: Berlin in eighteen twenties, and these usually had one read

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Speaker 1: per hole in the instrument, whereas later models would significantly

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Speaker 1: expand the number of notes that could be played using

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Speaker 1: additional reads. Yeah, the first to read harmonica appeared in

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Speaker 1: and So with this design, one read plays a note

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Speaker 1: when the player exhales or blows into the instrument, and

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Speaker 1: another read that plays a different note. Sometimes we'll talk

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Speaker 1: about this morning detail in a moment when the player

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Speaker 1: inhales or draws through the instrument. And this new design

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Speaker 1: of a blowing versus a an inhaling and having both

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Speaker 1: options was the brainchild of a man named Joseph Richter,

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Speaker 1: and there's still today a thing called Richter tuning, which

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Speaker 1: is named after him based on some of these ideas. Uh.

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Speaker 1: And since we're kind of getting into sort of how

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Speaker 1: these work in terms of blowing and drawing, we're gonna

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Speaker 1: step away from the history chronology for just a moment

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Speaker 1: and talk about the actual physical makeup of harmonica. But

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Speaker 1: before we dive into that, let's have a quick word

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Speaker 1: from a sponsor. So now that we've reached the point

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Speaker 1: in history where their harmonica is actually a harmonica as

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Speaker 1: we would recognize it, we're going to talk a little

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Speaker 1: bit more about how they're constructed and how they actually work.

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Speaker 1: Harmonicas are free read instruments, and that means that the

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Speaker 1: red is fixed at one end and it's set over

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Speaker 1: an opening that's barely larger than the read. Yeah, if

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Speaker 1: you take a part of harmonica, you're gonna see a

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Speaker 1: pretty simple assortment of pieces. There. The top and bottom

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Speaker 1: cover plates, which provide the exterior housing for the whole thing.

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Speaker 1: The comb is the thick centerpiece of the instrument, and

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Speaker 1: it contains the holes that a player blows into her

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Speaker 1: draws through. And combs were made of wood originally, but

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Speaker 1: now they're sometimes made of plastic or metal. The reed

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Speaker 1: plates sit on either side of the column in between

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Speaker 1: the comb and the cover plates. The reds are affixed

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Speaker 1: to these read plates, and the length of the reads vary.

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Speaker 1: That's what creates the different oats. They're also screws holding

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Speaker 1: the whole business together. Read plates on most harmonical harmonicas

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Speaker 1: are made out of metal. They can also be made

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Speaker 1: of plastic, but that usually relegates the instrument into the

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Speaker 1: realm of toys. Yeah, those are the ones that I

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Speaker 1: was making adults crazy with when I was a child

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Speaker 1: slash teenager slash young adult. There are four common types

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Speaker 1: of harmonica, the diatonic, the chromatic, the tremolo, and the octave.

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Speaker 1: So diatonic harmonicas contained ten holes. The four middle holes

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Speaker 1: make up an octave, and then the holes on either

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Speaker 1: side of that center group extend the scale. These are

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Speaker 1: the harmonicas that you normally hear in country your blues music.

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Speaker 1: Joseph Richter instrument was a diatonic harmonica. Chromatics, which are

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Speaker 1: favored often for classical and jazz music, have more options

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Speaker 1: for the number of holes that can be in the comb.

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Speaker 1: They can come in ten, twelve or sixteen whole varieties

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Speaker 1: and can play all twelve notes on the chromatic scale.

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Speaker 1: Both tremolo and octave harmonicas have double holes. In tremolo models,

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Speaker 1: which are commonly used in Latin, Asian, international folk and

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Speaker 1: gospel music, each double hole has two reads tuned to

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Speaker 1: the same note, but one is slightly higher to create

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Speaker 1: a vibrating effect. Octave harmonicas, which are often favored for

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Speaker 1: Irish or Cajun music, have two reads in each double

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Speaker 1: hole like the tremolo, but the reads are tuned in

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Speaker 1: octave apart. The harmonica is deceptively simple. Almost anyone who

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Speaker 1: blows into one can make a noise out of it,

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Speaker 1: but there are true masters of the instrument who spend

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Speaker 1: years perfecting their ambisher and technique. Yeah, I mean the

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Speaker 1: way that people form their mouth muscles to make noises

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Speaker 1: is uh. It varies and you can get different tones

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Speaker 1: from different ways that you shape your mouth, and different

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Speaker 1: players have kind of signature sounds that they create because

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Speaker 1: their ambishure is is so specific to the way they play.

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Speaker 1: It's really quite fascinating. But now that we kind of

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Speaker 1: understand how it all works, we're going to get back

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Speaker 1: into the history of it. And we left off in

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Speaker 1: the chronology with Joseph Richter having developed the two read

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Speaker 1: system for harmonicas, and despite this huge jump in harmonica

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Speaker 1: technology and harmonicas to this day retain Richter's design. H

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Speaker 1: There was actually some difficulty, though, getting any serious attention

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Speaker 1: for this mouth organ um. Established musicians at the time

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Speaker 1: were a little snooty. They kind of viewed it as

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Speaker 1: a plaything, and the fact that it was available to

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Speaker 1: anyone because of its simplicity and relatively low price point

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Speaker 1: compared to other musical instruments really did not help in

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Speaker 1: this regard. I feel like that probably pertains to like

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Speaker 1: the forty seven other extremely easy to carry musical instruments.

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Speaker 1: But I've thought of since we recorded the intro, I

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Speaker 1: feel like folks are gonna email us lots of other

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Speaker 1: easy to carry instruments. That's great. Sure. Eventually businessmen saw

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Speaker 1: the appeal of offering musicality to the masses, and harmonicas

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Speaker 1: were manufactured for retail sale. One of the businessmen who

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Speaker 1: did this was Christian Messner of Troughingen, and when Messner

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Speaker 1: founded his harmonica company in eighteen seven, he was a

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Speaker 1: very secretive and extremely protective of how these small instruments

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Speaker 1: were made. So much so that only members of his

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Speaker 1: family were even allowed information about his factory and how

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Speaker 1: it worked. Unfortunately, his family members were not quite as

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Speaker 1: careful with the secret as he was. Messner's business did

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Speaker 1: really well for years, but in the eighteen fifties his nephew,

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Speaker 1: Christian Weiss joined the company. After working with his uncle

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Speaker 1: for a year, Wiss started his own factory. A former

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Speaker 1: school friend of Weiss's, Matthias Hohner, stopped by the new

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Speaker 1: factory in eighteen fifty six to visit, but it was

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Speaker 1: not just a social call. By the time Weiss realized

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Speaker 1: that owner was carefully observing and taking in the family's

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Speaker 1: trade seek it, it was too late to do anything

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Speaker 1: about it. Yep, Mattia's owner opened up his own harmonica

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Speaker 1: factory the next year, eighteen fifty seven, using to some

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Speaker 1: degree the knowledge that he gleaned on his visit to

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Speaker 1: Weiss and wife's factory to make his product. And owner,

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Speaker 1: like both Messner and Weiss, had been a clockmaker prior

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Speaker 1: to this venture, and he apparently was not particularly musically inclined.

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Speaker 1: But what he really did have on his side was

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Speaker 1: that he was a better businessman than Messner and Weiss.

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Speaker 1: He figured out not only how to make harmonicas, but

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Speaker 1: how to mass produce harmonicas. And this was a huge

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Speaker 1: departure from the normal musical instrument manufacture process, as you know,

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Speaker 1: is still in many ways the case. It's a trade

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Speaker 1: that was always focused on handcrafted work. Because he had

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Speaker 1: this large output of harmonicas, that also meant that he

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Speaker 1: could sell them in bulk. But volume sales weren't the

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Speaker 1: only way he was outpacing the other entrepreneurs. He recognized

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Speaker 1: the United States had a large commune of German immigrants

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Speaker 1: who might want to carry a little piece of home

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Speaker 1: with them in their new country. Harmonicas would fit right

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Speaker 1: into their pockets. So in eighteen sixty two, this former

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Speaker 1: clockmaker sent a shipment of his harmonica products to members

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Speaker 1: of his family who had already emigrated to the US.

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Speaker 1: And his belief was that if these cousins of his

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Speaker 1: could just promote the harmonica to other immigrants, demand would

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Speaker 1: naturally grow. And Hohner was right, and his US market

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Speaker 1: quickly became his biggest market. Once harmonicas had traveled to

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Speaker 1: the United States, they soon spread all through the country.

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Speaker 1: As harmonicas made their way into the American South and Southwest.

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Speaker 1: The sound really became an integral part of folk music.

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Speaker 1: New playing techniques also developed along the way. Blues musicians

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Speaker 1: started cutting their hands around their harmonicas just to experiment

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Speaker 1: with sort of slurring the notes. Yeah, there was a

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Speaker 1: lot of musical development in this time and and technique

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Speaker 1: development around the harmonic. Uh uh that we're not going

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Speaker 1: super deep into, but it's really interesting and it's it's

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Speaker 1: kind of one of those things where this instrument was

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Speaker 1: designed to be played one way, but when it got

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Speaker 1: to the US, particularly in the South and in you know,

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Speaker 1: as you said, a lot of blues culture, they really

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Speaker 1: just sort of found their own ways to play it.

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Speaker 1: It was like they did not have this European music tradition,

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Speaker 1: so they just kind of approached it as a completely

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Speaker 1: new thing. Uh. And in the meantime, Owner really continued

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Speaker 1: to do extremely well for himself. Twenty years into his

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Speaker 1: business venture as a harmonica manufacturer, he had basically reached

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Speaker 1: mogul status. So at that point he was turning out

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Speaker 1: a million harmonicas each year. In Owner introduced the marine

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Speaker 1: band harmonica, and this model has been popular ever since

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Speaker 1: with musicians and collectors. The diatonic marine band model had

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Speaker 1: brass reads and a pair wood comb and had has

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Speaker 1: been played by everyone from Bob Dylan to blues legend

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Speaker 1: Big Mama Thornton. Yeah it. It remains one of the

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Speaker 1: most popular models of all time. The Owner company innovated

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Speaker 1: again by introducing the chromatic harmonica, which we talked about

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Speaker 1: a little bit when we were discussing different types. After

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Speaker 1: forty years in business as a harmonica maker, Owner bought

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Speaker 1: out Messner's company. Uh. Much as Messner ran his business

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Speaker 1: as a family affair, Owner built his empire along with

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Speaker 1: his sons and eventually handed the company off to them.

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Speaker 1: Trossing in Germany became known as a harmonica city. Uh.

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Speaker 1: And next up, we're going to talk a little bit

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Speaker 1: about a couple of the musicians who made names to

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Speaker 1: themselves playing harmonica. There have been many, but we're only

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Speaker 1: gonna cover a couple. But first we're gonna pause once

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Speaker 1: again for a word from a sponsor. The sponsor is Squarespace.

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Speaker 1: we promised we would discuss harmonica players here for a moment.

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Speaker 1: And as the harmonica became integrated into the developing blues

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Speaker 1: and country scene that was starting to really grow in

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Speaker 1: the United States, skilled players began to emerge as famous musicians.

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Speaker 1: One of the first of these famous harmonica masters was

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Speaker 1: DeFord Bailey. Bailey had been playing harmonica since the age

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Speaker 1: of three. His parents were musical and he allegedly was

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Speaker 1: given instruments instead of toys when he was a child.

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Speaker 1: A Nashville radio show called barn Dance started featuring him

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Speaker 1: and his incredible talent. In nine Bailey became a regular

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Speaker 1: performer when this show called barn Dance changed its name

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Speaker 1: to something you're probably going to recognize, which is the

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Speaker 1: Grand ol Opry in n and he appeared on that

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Speaker 1: for fifteen years and was actually one of its best

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Speaker 1: paid stars. He was the first African American country star,

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Speaker 1: and in many ways he served as a bridge between

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Speaker 1: the rural folk tradition which he had grown up in

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Speaker 1: and popular music, which he sort of became a huge

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Speaker 1: icon in. Bailey's music career continued until nineteen forty one,

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Speaker 1: when the American Society of Composers, Authors and Publishers or ASCAP,

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Speaker 1: and the radio industry started a dispute over licensing fees

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Speaker 1: for performing on the air. Because there was no licensing

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Speaker 1: contract in place. While the dispute was underway, the Ford

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Speaker 1: Bailey couldn't play many of the songs that had come

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Speaker 1: to be favorites of the opery audience. Yeah, this really

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Speaker 1: was a very volatile time. Uh, you know. It was

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Speaker 1: basically like he wanted to play music, He wanted to

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Speaker 1: play for his his audience and his fans, and they

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Speaker 1: were like, you can't do that, Like the risks are

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Speaker 1: too great, you cannot possibly do this. And it was

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Speaker 1: really frustrating. And as this coral kind of lumbered on,

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Speaker 1: the radio station ended up in some pretty dire fiscal

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Speaker 1: states and they had to let people go and Bailey

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Speaker 1: was one of those people. So at that point in

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Speaker 1: he left his music career behind more or less entirely,

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Speaker 1: and he opened a shoeshine parlor, although he would occasionally

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Speaker 1: return to the radio show. After all of the legal

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Speaker 1: battles had died down for guest appearances. De Ford Bailey

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Speaker 1: died in July two and he was inducted into the

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Speaker 1: Country Music Hall of Fame in two thousand five. And

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Speaker 1: the next person that we're going to talk about is

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Speaker 1: really colorful and interesting, uh and has a very hazy

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Speaker 1: biography because we'll talk about why. At the same time

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Speaker 1: that DeFord Bailey was enjoying his popularity with the Opery,

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Speaker 1: there was another blues harmonica player who was also gaining recognition,

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Speaker 1: and this was sunny Boy Williamson. The second who was

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Speaker 1: born we believe, Alec Miller, and he made his name

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Speaker 1: on a radio show called King Biscuit Time. And Sunny

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Speaker 1: Boy is really interesting, uh, though historically frustrating because it

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Speaker 1: appears that he really delighted in planting false information about

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Speaker 1: himself in the press. He went by numerous names. In

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Speaker 1: addition to Sunny Boy, he was also sometimes called Rice, Reverend,

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Speaker 1: Reverend Blue, Willie Miller, and Willie Williamson. To make matters

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Speaker 1: even more confusing, there was another sunny Boy Williamson who

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Speaker 1: played blues harmonica at the same time and who was

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Speaker 1: around at the same age, based mainly out of Chicago,

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Speaker 1: but to eventually came to be known as sunny Boy

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Speaker 1: Williamson one and sunny Boy Williamson two. For the purpose

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Speaker 1: of today's episode, when we referenced sunny Boy, we're talking

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Speaker 1: about number two. Yeah, there. I mean their stories run

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Speaker 1: so parallel in terms of timeline. I think sunny Boy

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Speaker 1: Williamson one, or the first however you want to say,

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Speaker 1: it was born in nineteen thirteen, and we think that

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Speaker 1: sunny Boy Williamson two was born in nineteen twelve, though

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Speaker 1: there are no question marks there as well. We don't

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Speaker 1: know that that's an accurate date. So it's very um

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Speaker 1: tricky to kind of sort out the details sometimes, and

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Speaker 1: even while doing research, I would stumble across sites that

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00:20:01,640 --> 00:20:04,160
Speaker 1: seemed to be really squared away, and then I would realize, oh,

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00:20:04,200 --> 00:20:07,800
Speaker 1: they've accidentally possibly conflated these two men together, or their

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00:20:07,840 --> 00:20:11,440
Speaker 1: details have crossed the wires and they're not quite accurate.

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Speaker 1: But so sunny Boy that we're talking about today too,

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Speaker 1: claims to have appeared on the Grand ol Opry radio

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Speaker 1: show in the nineteen thirties, but that has never been verified.

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Speaker 1: But once he started playing harmonica on King Biscuit Time

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Speaker 1: as sunny Boy Williamson, he kind of became too famous

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Speaker 1: to make another name change, although I suppose he could

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Speaker 1: have played UH anonymously somewhere under another name, but sunny

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Speaker 1: Boy was really his, his recognized name UH. And the

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Speaker 1: show's sponsor was so delighted with him and his popularity

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Speaker 1: that they even marketed a corn meal named after him.

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Speaker 1: So it was his sunny Boy corn meal, and it

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Speaker 1: had a photo of him on the bag. His career

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Speaker 1: spanned quite a while, and he was very successful. He

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Speaker 1: started a recording career in the nineteen fifties and did

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Speaker 1: really well for himself. Funny Boy died in nineteen sixty

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Speaker 1: five and was inducted into the Arkansas Entertainer's Hall of Fame.

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Speaker 1: In two thousand eight, he was given a marker on

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Speaker 1: the Mississippi Blues Trail. And while those are only two

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Speaker 1: harmonicists that have gamed fame, there are certainly scores of

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Speaker 1: others in all genres, from classical to hip hop. It's

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Speaker 1: an instrument that you know. As we said, it's deceptively simple.

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Speaker 1: People go oh, harmonica, but the people that play it well,

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Speaker 1: it's amazing. In December five, astronaut Willie Shara became the

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00:21:30,720 --> 00:21:33,760
Speaker 1: first human being to play a song in space, and

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00:21:33,800 --> 00:21:36,560
Speaker 1: he did so on a harmonica. He played jingle bells

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00:21:36,600 --> 00:21:38,240
Speaker 1: as part of a Christmas joke that he and a

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00:21:38,280 --> 00:21:42,040
Speaker 1: fellow astronaut, Tom Stafford played with Mission Control. The two

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00:21:42,080 --> 00:21:44,880
Speaker 1: of them reported seeing a UFO piloted by a man

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Speaker 1: in a red suit. Yah, you're having a little bit

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00:21:48,520 --> 00:21:53,440
Speaker 1: of fun. Uh. The Honer tradition in Truss Engine continues

384
00:21:53,480 --> 00:21:56,720
Speaker 1: into present day. This company has produced more than a

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Speaker 1: billion harmonicas since it's beginning in eighteen fifty seven. It

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00:22:00,359 --> 00:22:04,520
Speaker 1: is still going strong. During the nineteen sixties, owner Harmonica

387
00:22:04,800 --> 00:22:07,159
Speaker 1: was really smart and signed endorsement deals with some of

388
00:22:07,160 --> 00:22:10,480
Speaker 1: the biggest names in music, including the Beatles, Johnny Cash

389
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Speaker 1: and Sammy Davis Jr. Trossingen is also home to the

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00:22:14,480 --> 00:22:17,760
Speaker 1: Harmonica Museum, which is funded in a joint partnership by

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00:22:17,760 --> 00:22:20,720
Speaker 1: the German government and the Honer Company. It's homes almost

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00:22:20,760 --> 00:22:26,040
Speaker 1: twenty five thousand different harmonicas from around the world. Yeah,

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Speaker 1: so you can visit it if you are ever there. Uh.

394
00:22:28,920 --> 00:22:32,520
Speaker 1: The harmonica, of course, retains its popularity in part because

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00:22:32,600 --> 00:22:35,159
Speaker 1: it can be so expressive and can sound so different

396
00:22:35,600 --> 00:22:38,240
Speaker 1: depending on the person playing it. As we talked about, Uh,

397
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Speaker 1: and I read this great interview UH that took place

398
00:22:42,680 --> 00:22:47,000
Speaker 1: in and Smithsonian writer Paul Bisiglio interviewed Barry Lee Pearson

399
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Speaker 1: about an album called Classic Harmonica Blues that Pearson was

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00:22:50,640 --> 00:22:55,520
Speaker 1: co producing for Smithsonian Folkways Recordings, and in this interview,

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00:22:56,080 --> 00:22:59,360
Speaker 1: Bisseglio asked Pearson what he hoped listeners would take away

402
00:22:59,400 --> 00:23:02,400
Speaker 1: from the record being and his response was, I hope

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00:23:02,400 --> 00:23:04,679
Speaker 1: people might want to think more about the harmonica and

404
00:23:04,720 --> 00:23:07,280
Speaker 1: maybe try it out. I also would like them to

405
00:23:07,359 --> 00:23:09,719
Speaker 1: understand that you can play it in a variety of ways.

406
00:23:10,160 --> 00:23:13,240
Speaker 1: You can bend an instrument to your cultural preference. If

407
00:23:13,240 --> 00:23:15,119
Speaker 1: you put your mind to it, you can make an

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00:23:15,119 --> 00:23:17,719
Speaker 1: instrument talk for you in the language that you prefer,

409
00:23:18,080 --> 00:23:21,200
Speaker 1: in your own cultural idiom. I just love that way

410
00:23:21,200 --> 00:23:24,679
Speaker 1: of putting it. So that's our brief history of harmonicas

411
00:23:24,720 --> 00:23:26,280
Speaker 1: it's one of those things that there are so many

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Speaker 1: branches that we could talk about, but I kind of

413
00:23:29,320 --> 00:23:33,840
Speaker 1: wanted to give a nice brief overview since it's a

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00:23:33,840 --> 00:23:36,440
Speaker 1: an instrument that maybe doesn't always get the respect it deserves.

415
00:23:36,440 --> 00:23:40,000
Speaker 1: But people that love harmonica love harmonica, and it's because

416
00:23:40,040 --> 00:23:42,480
Speaker 1: it's kind of awesome. I like to watch when the

417
00:23:43,000 --> 00:23:45,560
Speaker 1: somebody plays the harmonica and the guitar at the same time.

418
00:23:46,960 --> 00:23:49,040
Speaker 1: Oh yeah, that always kind of blows my mind, like

419
00:23:49,119 --> 00:23:51,560
Speaker 1: I can't I feel like my brain can't parse that file,

420
00:23:51,640 --> 00:23:55,399
Speaker 1: Like I'm like, how how does it do? But people

421
00:23:55,440 --> 00:23:58,920
Speaker 1: are talented and can do many things, it was I'm

422
00:23:59,000 --> 00:24:01,720
Speaker 1: just not one of them. Um. I also have a

423
00:24:01,760 --> 00:24:03,760
Speaker 1: little bit of listener mail that has nothing to do

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00:24:03,800 --> 00:24:08,280
Speaker 1: with harmonicas. I've been wanting to showcase more of our

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00:24:08,320 --> 00:24:11,399
Speaker 1: awesome um postcards that we get, because we get a

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Speaker 1: lot of them and sometimes I don't always stop and

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00:24:14,800 --> 00:24:16,159
Speaker 1: read them for the show. So I've been trying to

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00:24:16,160 --> 00:24:18,080
Speaker 1: do more of those lately, more of our actual hard

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Speaker 1: copy mails, since we often read a lot of emails.

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Speaker 1: So the first one is from our listener Will, and

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00:24:23,640 --> 00:24:25,600
Speaker 1: he writes, Hi, Holly and Tracy, my name is Will

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00:24:25,680 --> 00:24:27,959
Speaker 1: and I love your podcast. I picked up on it

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00:24:28,040 --> 00:24:30,640
Speaker 1: this past summer and took it with me to Evianne, France,

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00:24:30,640 --> 00:24:32,919
Speaker 1: where I completed a five month study abroad with a

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Speaker 1: f s USA. Listening to your program has led me

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00:24:36,200 --> 00:24:38,600
Speaker 1: to do my own digging and learn more about where

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00:24:38,600 --> 00:24:40,919
Speaker 1: I was living as well was my hometown. I'm off

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00:24:40,960 --> 00:24:43,640
Speaker 1: to college this June at the US Merchant Marine Academy

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00:24:43,880 --> 00:24:45,560
Speaker 1: in King's Point, New York. And I hope I can

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00:24:45,600 --> 00:24:47,800
Speaker 1: make it to your live show this fall again. I

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00:24:47,840 --> 00:24:50,640
Speaker 1: love the show and for teaching me so much about

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00:24:50,720 --> 00:24:53,480
Speaker 1: history both here and around the world. Will thanks so much.

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00:24:53,480 --> 00:24:55,359
Speaker 1: We hope you make it here to our show in

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00:24:55,400 --> 00:24:57,320
Speaker 1: October as well. That would be awesome. And he sent

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00:24:57,359 --> 00:25:00,960
Speaker 1: us this beautiful postcard of Evianne Laba, which is a

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00:25:00,960 --> 00:25:04,239
Speaker 1: beautiful part of France. And it's a gorgeous postcard. And

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00:25:04,320 --> 00:25:08,560
Speaker 1: our second one is from our listener, Teresa, and this

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00:25:08,560 --> 00:25:10,679
Speaker 1: one is near and dear to my heart because the

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00:25:10,720 --> 00:25:14,399
Speaker 1: postcard is from Disney World, she says. Hi, Ali and

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00:25:14,440 --> 00:25:17,199
Speaker 1: draz First, I love the podcast and the knowledge you

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00:25:17,280 --> 00:25:20,040
Speaker 1: so pleasantly bestow upon its listeners. I listened on my

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00:25:20,080 --> 00:25:22,680
Speaker 1: way to work and pretty much whenever possible. I'm sad

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00:25:22,720 --> 00:25:24,960
Speaker 1: to say I'm nearing the end of the archive. I

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Speaker 1: picked this card up at the Polynesian Resort at Disney

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00:25:27,480 --> 00:25:31,000
Speaker 1: World on my last vacation well staycation really uh, and

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00:25:31,040 --> 00:25:33,280
Speaker 1: your episode on the Haunted Mansion made my trip even

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00:25:33,320 --> 00:25:35,840
Speaker 1: more interesting. I love the parks as it is and

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00:25:35,880 --> 00:25:38,720
Speaker 1: go whenever possible. I hope you ladies, enjoy the card

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00:25:38,760 --> 00:25:40,760
Speaker 1: and keep up the great work. Thanks for keeping the

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00:25:40,760 --> 00:25:44,040
Speaker 1: podcast interesting and enlightening and it's um. What's interesting about

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00:25:44,040 --> 00:25:47,000
Speaker 1: this postcard for me is that, uh, it is a

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00:25:47,080 --> 00:25:50,520
Speaker 1: picture of the newly redone Great Ceremonial House at the Polynesian.

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00:25:50,640 --> 00:25:54,159
Speaker 1: So for any of our listeners that no Disney World,

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Speaker 1: and for listeners that don't, the Polynesian was one of

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00:25:56,560 --> 00:26:00,720
Speaker 1: the three original resort hotels at Disney World, and it recently,

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00:26:00,720 --> 00:26:03,879
Speaker 1: in the last year and a half, underwent this huge remodel.

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00:26:04,520 --> 00:26:06,439
Speaker 1: Some people love it, some people do not. But this

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00:26:06,520 --> 00:26:08,719
Speaker 1: is one of the first postcards I've seen of the

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00:26:08,760 --> 00:26:11,920
Speaker 1: actual new version of it, So it's kind of cool.

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00:26:11,960 --> 00:26:13,960
Speaker 1: They took away the big fountain that was in the middle,

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00:26:14,240 --> 00:26:15,879
Speaker 1: which I do kind of miss and now it's kind

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00:26:15,880 --> 00:26:17,520
Speaker 1: of a little bit more of an open area, kind

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00:26:17,520 --> 00:26:20,560
Speaker 1: of more modern space. But we think, to Theresa, I

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00:26:20,680 --> 00:26:23,600
Speaker 1: love it. I love all of our postcards. If you

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00:26:23,600 --> 00:26:26,000
Speaker 1: would like to send us an email, you can do so.

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00:26:26,480 --> 00:26:29,520
Speaker 1: That's at History Podcast at how Stuff Works dot com.

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00:26:29,560 --> 00:26:31,520
Speaker 1: You can also connect with us at Facebook dot com,

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00:26:31,560 --> 00:26:34,439
Speaker 1: slash missed in History on Twitter, at missed in History

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00:26:34,960 --> 00:26:37,359
Speaker 1: on pinterest dot com. Slash missed in History and at

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00:26:37,359 --> 00:26:39,920
Speaker 1: missed in History dot tumbler dot com. If you would

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00:26:39,920 --> 00:26:42,400
Speaker 1: like some stuff you missed in history class good ease,

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00:26:42,480 --> 00:26:46,440
Speaker 1: you can purchase those at misston history dot spreadshirt dot com.

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00:26:46,480 --> 00:26:47,879
Speaker 1: And if you would like to learn a little bit

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00:26:47,880 --> 00:26:49,679
Speaker 1: more about what we talked about today, if you go

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00:26:49,760 --> 00:26:51,480
Speaker 1: to the house Stu Works website and you type in

486
00:26:51,520 --> 00:26:54,480
Speaker 1: the word Harmonica, one of the articles you will get

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00:26:54,560 --> 00:26:57,119
Speaker 1: is on notable grand ol Opry performers, and one of

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00:26:57,160 --> 00:27:00,760
Speaker 1: those mentioned in the article is DeFord Bailey. You can

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00:27:00,920 --> 00:27:03,359
Speaker 1: also visit us at missed in History dot com. That

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00:27:03,520 --> 00:27:05,040
Speaker 1: is our home on the web where we have an

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00:27:05,160 --> 00:27:08,159
Speaker 1: archive of all of our episodes, show notes from all

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00:27:08,160 --> 00:27:10,359
Speaker 1: the episodes, Tracy and I have worked on the occasional

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00:27:10,400 --> 00:27:13,760
Speaker 1: other odds and the goodies, some fun images to look

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00:27:13,800 --> 00:27:17,040
Speaker 1: at uh and we encourage you to visit how stuff

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00:27:17,040 --> 00:27:19,520
Speaker 1: works dot com, our parents site, and missed Industry dot

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00:27:19,600 --> 00:27:26,679
Speaker 1: com for more on this and thousands of other topics.

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Speaker 1: Is that how stuff Works dot com. M