There will be no new episode of the podcast this week. The podcast will return next Sunday with episode 275, “Stalin Is the Lenin of Today.”
If you need something to do to tide you over until the next episode, check out my short story, “The Boy Who Didn’t Know How to Recognize a King,” now available as an Amazon Kindle Single!
Although sound recording was invented in the late 19th century, motion pictures with sound did not begin to appear until the late 1920s. The early, experimental talking picture above was recorded in 1924.
By that time, silent film had developed its own style and set of conventions. It took talking pictures time to get established, for both artistic and technical reasons.
Playlist:
Fanfare
Opening Theme
“Toot, Toot, Tootsie (Goo’Bye!)”
Composed in 1922 by Gus Kahn, Ernie Erdman, and Danny Russo. Public domain.
“California, Here I Come”
Composed in 1923 by Bud DeSylva, Joseph Meyer, and Al Jolson. Public domain.
Closing Theme
Except when otherwise indicated, the contents of this podcast are © and ℗ 2015, 2016, 2017, 2018, 2019, 2020, 2021, 2022 by Mark Painter, all rights reserved. Some music and sound effects used by arrangement with Pond 5.
In this third episode of a three-part series, we look at the anatomy of fascism.
Fascism in power is not so much an ideological force as it is a fascist leader, who rules pragmatically. One might say instinctively. At home, fascists celebrate the glories of “our” people; abroad, they fight wars.
Playlist:
Fanfare
Opening Theme
Into the Abyss
Closing Theme
Except when otherwise indicated, the contents of this podcast are © and ℗ 2015, 2016, 2017, 2018, 2019, 2020, 2021, 2022 by Mark Painter, all rights reserved. Some music and sound effects used by arrangement with Pond 5.
In this second episode of a three-part series, we look at the ideology of fascism.
What do fascists believe? At the heart of fascism is an ideology that centers “our” people as the world’s best and brightest, and accuses “other” people of stealing “our” glory. Only by embracing fascism can “we” recover what was taken from “us.”
Playlist:
Fanfare
Opening Theme
“Bullets and Bayonets”
Composed in 1917 by John Philip Sousa. Public domain.
Performed by the United States Marine Band. Public domain recording. Source.
Closing Theme
Except when otherwise indicated, the contents of this podcast are © and ℗ 2015, 2016, 2017, 2018, 2019, 2020, 2021, 2022 by Mark Painter, all rights reserved. Some music and sound effects used by arrangement with Pond 5.
In this first episode of a three-part series, we look at the origins of fascism.
At the turn of the century, socialists were becoming increasingly confident that expanding the right to vote to the working classes would inevitably bring socialism via the ballot box. But what happened instead was a new right-wing ideology came into being, one that competed with socialists for that new working-class vote: Fascism.
Playlist:
Fanfare
Opening Theme
“Bullets and Bayonets”
Composed in 1917 by John Philip Sousa. Public domain.
Performed by the United States Marine Band. Public domain recording. Source.
Closing Theme
Except when otherwise indicated, the contents of this podcast are © and ℗ 2015, 2016, 2017, 2018, 2019, 2020, 2021, 2022 by Mark Painter, all rights reserved. Some music and sound effects used by arrangement with Pond 5.
On January 30, 1933, Adolf Hitler became chancellor of a German government in which Nazis held only a couple of cabinet posts. But Hitler had demanded yet another Reichstag election (Germany’s third in less than a year), and the Nazis set out to create a crisis out of a supposed impending Communist revolution.
When a fire was set in the Reichstag just days before the election, Hitler and the Nazis got everything they needed to declare an emergency, crack down on the left, and persuade the Reichstag to grant them sweeping “emergency” powers that they would retain until 1945.
Playlist:
Fanfare
Opening Theme
Sonata for Clarinet and Piano, Opus 167
Composed in 1921 by Camille Saint-Saëns. Public domain.
Performed by Jordi Rumbau. Recording used pursuant to a Creative Commons CC BY-NC 3.0 license. Source.
Closing Theme
Except when otherwise indicated, the contents of this podcast are © and ℗ 2015, 2016, 2017, 2018, 2019, 2020, 2021, 2022 by Mark Painter, all rights reserved. Some music and sound effects used by arrangement with Pond 5.
The year 1933 opened with Hitler and his Nazi Party seemingly no nearer to political power than they had been a year earlier.
But 89 years ago today, on January 30, 1933, after a few right-wing nationalist politicians struck a deal with Hitler, a coalition government took office with Hitler as chancellor.
Playlist:
Fanfare
Opening Theme
Symphony No. 6 in F major
Composed in 1808 by Ludwig van Beethoven. Public domain.
Recording used pursuant to a Creative Commons CC BY-NC-SA 3.0 license. Source.
Closing Theme
Except when otherwise indicated, the contents of this podcast are © and ℗ 2015, 2016, 2017, 2018, 2019, 2020, 2021, 2022 by Mark Painter, all rights reserved. Some music and sound effects used by arrangement with Pond 5.
Germany held four national elections in 1932: two rounds of Presidential elections, and then two Reichstag elections. The Nazi Party competed vigorously in each one, and in a number of state elections, but while it racked up impressive support, it never translated into a majority.
Hitler’s unwillingness to compromise with other parties made it difficult for the Nazis to form coalitions, even when they won the largest share of the vote. By the end of the year, they seemed no closer to power than they had been at the beginning.
Playlist:
Fanfare
Opening Theme
Intermezzo No. 2
Composed in 1898 by Johannes Brahms.
Performed by Markus Staab, and used pursuant to a Creative Commons CC BY-NC-ND 3.0 license. Source.
Closing Theme
Except when otherwise indicated, the contents of this podcast are © and ℗ 2015, 2016, 2017, 2018, 2019, 2020, 2021, 2022 by Mark Painter, all rights reserved. Some music and sound effects used by arrangement with Pond 5.
The dramatic result of the 1930 German federal election was that the NSDAP, the Nazi Party, was now the second-largest in the Reichstag and thus a major player in German politics.
But being a major party is not the same thing as participating in the government. The NSDAP, like the Communists, stubbonly refused to join any coalition, unless the party leader, Adolf Hitler, was made chancellor.
Playlist:
Fanfare
Opening Theme
Prelude to Act III from Lohengrin
Composed in 1848 by Richard Wagner.
Performed by the United States Marine Band. Public domain recording. Source.
Closing Theme
Except when otherwise indicated, the contents of this podcast are © and ℗ 2015, 2016, 2017, 2018, 2019, 2020, 2021, 2022 by Mark Painter, all rights reserved. Some music and sound effects used by arrangement with Pond 5.
The last years of the 1920s saw an upsurge in support for both the German Communist Party (KPD) and the National Socialist German Workers Party (NSDAP).
Although they had different reasons, the two parties shared a strategy of refusing to enter into coalition with other parties, as is the norm in parliamentary democracies. But as these parties grew in representation in the German Reichstag, it became increasingly difficult for the other parties to put together a majority coalition.
Playlist:
Fanfare
Opening Theme
Overture to Egmont
Composed in 1810 by Ludwig van Beethoven.
Performed by the Czech National Symphony Orchestra. Public domain recording. Source.
Closing Theme
Except when otherwise indicated, the contents of this podcast are © and ℗ 2015, 2016, 2017, 2018, 2019, 2020, 2021, 2022 by Mark Painter, all rights reserved. Some music and sound effects used by arrangement with Pond 5.