London after Dark
This story is from the Time Magazine Capsule 1940.
Sept. 2, 1940
London after Dark
Three weeks ago CBS News Chief Paul White and CBS European Director Ed Murrow started arranging to present from England a show called London After Dark. Murrow lined up nine commentators, including Vincent Sheean and J.B. Priestley, got them spotted with portable mikes all over London. Last week, the program was heard in the U.S. Unexpected was the cooperation of Adolf Hitler, whose bombers flew over but dropped no bombs.
First commentator heard on the CBS round up was Ed Murrow. Said he: "This is Trafalgar Square. The noise you hear at the moment is the sound of the air raid siren." Calmly, Murrow described the searchlights stabbing the London sky, the muted traffic, the shelter beneath St. Martin's in the Fields.
Moving on to an antiaircraft battery to an Air Rid Precautions station, to Hammersmith's, London's big dance hall, the program was effective all the way. Said Eric Severeid from Hammersmith's: "There are 1,500 people in the place at the moment; it is 15 minutes before midnight and that's the wartime closing hour for Saturday night. There was an air raid alarm 15 minutes ago. The orchestra leader simply announced they'd go on playing as the crowd wished to stay, and I don't expect more than half a dozen people have left."
The program wound up with J.B. Priestley: "I'm sitting at an open window in Whitehall. Henry VIII married Anne Boleyn near here. Elizabeth saw Shakespeare's plays here. Charles I was executed a few yards from where I'm sitting. It's historic ground and the very center of the hopes of free men everywhere. It's the heart of this great rock that's defying the dark tide of invasion that has destroyed freedom all over Western Europe."
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