Justin Schwartz wrote:
> I will go to bat for the Soviet claim to have saved the world from the
> Nazis,
A footnote, one of the more vivid memories of my childhood. There was a news commentator back in the early '40s, a former minister, by the name of Gabriel Heater. He would begin his newscast each evening with a deep voiced "There's ______ news tonight folks," the blank being either "good" or "bad." I remember his opening of his newscast on the eve of the Battle of El Alamein (July 1942) -- perhaps the western allies' most important contribution to the war effort. The victory at Stalingrad was months away, and had Rommel broken through at El Alamein Russia might have faced German armies coming in through Iran. Anyhow, what I remember is Heater's "There's bad news tonight folks," followed by 15 minutes of almost uninterrupted gloom. I don't know whether recordings of any of those newscasts of WW2 were preserved or not. That one would be a jewel if it is preserved. Heater had a most obnoxiously/gloriously fruity voice.
Carrol