Dear Hari,

I manage the Media Archives and Licensing for the Sherman Grinberg Film Library, which is the home of the historic Paramount and American Pathe Newsreel Collections,

We now have over 49,000 newsreels from 1897 - 1956 on our website to watch and download for no cost, with more footage added weekly. All the footage on the site was scanned directly from the original 35mm nitrate and acetate films.

While the short footage we have of Dr. Annie Besan is a Silent Film , you may be interested in seeing the footage, especially if you are not finding much other footage of her.

I will check in our internal database next week to see if there is any other footage available and let you know if we have any other footage.

The footage is of Jiddu Krishnamurti and Annie Besant in New York City, from 1926.

Here is the direct link to the footage: https://filmlibrary.shermangrinberg.com/?s=file=412795

Click on the link then click on the image and then select Play.

For those of you who do not know about the collection, colleagues who work for the Library of Congress say the collection is of the highest level of research value and yet most people have never seen the footage. Historians and scholars are often amazed to find out the films were carefully preserved and are now available.



We share our digital files, or direct links, with museums, libraries, archives and schools all over the world for no cost, so that teachers, students and researchers can use the footage for classroom projects, research, and other projects.



To visit the website, go to https://www.shermangrinberg.com/ then click on “Browse Collection”.


Best,
Lance


Lance Watsky

Manager of Media Archives & Licensing
Sherman Grinberg Film Library
21011 Itasca Street
Chatsworth, CA 91311
C: (909) 223-7941<tel:%28909%29%20223-7941>
E: [log in to unmask]

________________________________
From: Association for Recorded Sound Discussion List <[log in to unmask]> on behalf of David Lewis <[log in to unmask]>
Sent: Friday, November 4, 2022 3:40 AM
To: [log in to unmask] <[log in to unmask]>
Subject: Re: [ARSCLIST] Search for any surviving audio recordings of Dr. Annie Besant!

Hari.

I don't really know much about your subject apart from her Wikipedia
article. It looks like that she often traveled between England and India
though I wonder how much she was able to do in the fledgling days of radio
recording such as Dennis Rooney and the others describe here. Although
there is a British broadcast from 1924 extant, the earliest one I've heard
-- a bit of a Lew Stone broadcast -- dates from 1933, and the BBC has a
reputation for discarding archival recordings for the sake of convenience.
I know nothing whatsoever about the status of Indian archival radio
recordings -- what mediums were used, and how early they began -- but if I
were looking into this myself that's where I would start. You don't run
into a lot of recorded broadcast material, even in the U.S., before 1932.

Have you checked to see if she may have made commercial recordings of her
speeches in the acoustic period? The vast Indian 78 rpm legacy is a mystery
to me, but it seems a celebrity recording of her voice should not be ruled
out unless you've checked already. Likewise cylinder recordings; perhaps
she came in contact with someone who had early recording equipment. It was
not uncommon for well heeled persons, even in places like India, to own wax
cylinder machines. Just a thought.

--
David N. "Uncle Dave" Lewis
Host, "The Early Music Show"
WTJU 91.1 FM Charlottesville
"The Radio Voice of the University of Virginia"
[log in to unmask]


On Thu, Nov 3, 2022 at 12:00 PM Hari <[log in to unmask]> wrote:

> Dear All,
>
> Dr Annie Besant, A world renowned activist lived between 1847 and 1933! She
> was most definitely recorded visually , but it has become an impossible
> tasky, trying to locate any surviving audio tapes of hers...
>
> I have already reached out to dozens of archives around the world! Even the
> library of congress has no records...
>
> I am reaching out to you all for any advice regarding the same! Any help
> would be greatly appreciated!
>
> This is her 175th anniversary and I am trying to locate her original voice
> for a documentary!
>
> Sincerely,
> Hari Varma
>
> --
> *Sagi Sree Hari Varma*
> *Filmmaker*
> *Website: https://urldefense.proofpoint.com/v2/url?u=http-3A__www.sagisreeharivarma.com&d=DwICaQ&c=euGZstcaTDllvimEN8b7jXrwqOf-v5A_CdpgnVfiiMM&r=Kp4tmL90KaBMzYo2uBG6UY1FLVcV8J78ZNTo3170Ups&m=YmwAOgULLjuwIDQxrU68qsu1CQu1obEyb3vRuQ9DHqs&s=1C2CCFLWVuFLQ9gysdP4jG8M-pcMvYDxve-X0wYk2PU&e= <https://urldefense.proofpoint.com/v2/url?u=http-3A__www.sagisreeharivarma.com&d=DwICaQ&c=euGZstcaTDllvimEN8b7jXrwqOf-v5A_CdpgnVfiiMM&r=Kp4tmL90KaBMzYo2uBG6UY1FLVcV8J78ZNTo3170Ups&m=YmwAOgULLjuwIDQxrU68qsu1CQu1obEyb3vRuQ9DHqs&s=1C2CCFLWVuFLQ9gysdP4jG8M-pcMvYDxve-X0wYk2PU&e=>*
>