My freshly unwrapped STC4017C
Bought ……. ‘sold as seen’……’not known if working’….. from a house clearance sale on ebay. This microphone was previously owned by Kenneth Chaplin, who worked for the BBC from 1935 to 1981. Question is……. will my newly purchased STC 4017-C turn out to be:-
a) A Classicic World War 2 BBC Outside Broadcast microphone in perfect working order…………’We will fight them on the beaches’… etc etc.
OR
b) An expensive copper paperweight/doorstop!!!
What’s your guess? a) or b)
All I’ve got to do now is make up a special lead and find out!!!
2 Days Later ………
To find out what happens when I plug it in CLICK HERE!
I was going to write some technical blurb on this mic, but the information on Stan Coutant’s wonderful ‘Welcome to Microphones’ site is so comprehensive I would thoroughly recommend reading that!
http://www.coutant.org/stc4017c/index.html
Many historic 20th century broadcasts and recordings were made with the STC4017 (probably more than any other microphone) and many famous people have had their picture taken with it! Here is a great photograph of the writer George Orwell
Marlene Dietrich 1944 performing for the BBC Allied Expeditionary Forces Programme.
Here is another famous user:-
The 14 year old future Queen makes her first broadcast in 1940
More Pics
Lucky to find this elegant, original BBC stand for a bargain price on ebay!
Another sound clip CLICK HERE>
also
Live concert Solo violin recording
STC4017-C Delivering the famous ‘Peace in Our Time’ speech. Sept 30th 1938 Chamberlain returns from Munich with agreement from Hitler!
‘Mark my words, that Adolf Hitler is a very naughty boy!’ Headmaster Neville Chamberlain Declares War on Germany 1939
P.S. I wonder why they mic’d up his right hand??
Here below are links to to more interesting information :-
war time use of the STC4017 by the BBC.
John Snagge reporting D-Day landings June 6th 1944
America Declares War on Japan. President Roosevelt’s Speech using the original Western Electric 618a. (Same as STC4017a)
A variation of this microphone also used by the Royal Navy in the form of the Vitavox Admiralty Pattern No 1359
Following the years of wartime reporting, below a battery of STC4017s assists in cementing the peace.
The first session of the United Nations General Assembly opened on 10 January 1946 at Central Hall in London. Here, Secretary-General Trygve, speaks at his installation ceremony. (2 February 1946) UN Photo/Marcel Bolomey
