This is a multi-part message in MIME format. ---------------------- multipart/alternative attachment Hi Dave I appreciate the info, and the , perhaps, justifiable concern . . . but = two things come to mind . . . I doubt all piano tuners are members of the PTG, and=20 I doubt the PTG has the power to insist that all it's members charge = thus or so for certain activities, ie tuning, shop rate etc. I think there would be a huge variety of picing even if the ptg DID = insist on uniform pricing. This group seems far to independant to be dictated to. >From a Canadian perspective, and I don't profess to speak for Canadians = in general, just little ol' me, your country , and government has far = bigger issues to tend to looking after the welfare of its citizens both = at home and abroad, than to worry about a bunch of reprobate piano = tuners !! In spite of the current distress about your president, your electoral = system, michael moore's films etc, I remember, and agree with most of = Gordon Sinclair's statement of a few decades ago . . . I have included it for you . . Jim Kinnear www.pianoguy.com=20 -------------------------------------------------------------------------= ------- -------------------------------------------------------------------------= ------- The Americans Gordon Sinclair Radio Station CFBR 1010 2 St. Clair Avenue West Toronto, Ontario, Canada "LET'S BE PERSONAL" Broadcast June 5, 1973 CFRB, Toronto, Ontario Topic: "The Americans"=20 =20 -------------------------------------------------------------------------= - The United States dollar took another pounding on German, French = and British exchanges this morning, hitting the lowest point ever known = in West Germany. It has declined there by 41% since 1971 and this = Canadian thinks it is time to speak up for the Americans as the most = generous and possibly the least-appreciated people in all the earth.=20 As long as sixty years ago, when I first started to read = newspapers, I read of floods on the Yellow River and the Yangtse. Who = rushed in with men and money to help? The Americans did.=20 They have helped control floods on the Nile, the Amazon, the = Ganges and the Niger. Today, the rich bottom land of the Misssissippi is = under water and no foreign land has sent a dollar to help. Germany, = Japan and, to a lesser extent, Britain and Italy, were lifted out of the = debris of war by the Americans who poured in billions of dollars and = forgave other billions in debts. None of those countries is today paying = even the interest on its remaining debts to the United States.=20 When the franc was in danger of collapsing in 1956, it was the = Americans who propped it up and their reward was to be insulted and = swindled on the streets of Paris. I was there. I saw it.=20 When distant cities are hit by earthquakes, it is the United = States that hurries into help... Managua Nicaragua is one of the most = recent examples. So far this spring, 59 American communities have been = flattened by tornadoes. Nobody has helped.=20 The Marshall Plan .. the Truman Policy .. all pumped billions upon = billions of dollars into discouraged countries. Now, newspapers in those = countries are writing about the decadent war-mongering Americans.=20 I'd like to see one of those countries that is gloating over the = erosion of the United States dollar build its own airplanes.=20 Come on... let's hear it! Does any other country in the world have = a plane to equal the Boeing Jumbo Jet, the Lockheed Tristar or the = Douglas 107? If so, why don't they fly them? Why do all international = lines except Russia fly American planes? Why does no other land on earth = even consider putting a man or women on the moon?=20 You talk about Japanese technocracy and you get radios. You talk = about German technocracy and you get automobiles. You talk about = American technocracy and you find men on the moon, not once, but several = times ... and safely home again. You talk about scandals and the = Americans put theirs right in the store window for everyone to look at. = Even the draft dodgers are not pursued and hounded. They are here on our = streets, most of them ... unless they are breaking Canadian laws .. are = getting American dollars from Ma and Pa at home to spend here.=20 When the Americans get out of this bind ... as they will... who = could blame them if they said 'the hell with the rest of the world'. Let = someone else buy the Israel bonds, Let someone else build or repair = foreign dams or design foreign buildings that won't shake apart in = earthquakes.=20 When the railways of France, Germany and India were breaking down = through age, it was the Americans who rebuilt them. When the = Pennsylvania Railroad and the New York Central went broke, nobody loaned = them an old caboose. Both are still broke. I can name to you 5,000 times = when the Americans raced to the help of other people in trouble.=20 Can you name me even one time when someone else raced to the = Americans in trouble? I don't think there was outside help even during = the San Francisco earthquake.=20 Our neighbours have faced it alone and I am one Canadian who is = damned tired of hearing them kicked around. They will come out of this = thing with their flag high. And when they do, they are entitled to thumb = their nose at the lands that are gloating over their present troubles.=20 I hope Canada is not one of these. But there are many smug, = self-righteous Canadians. And finally, the American Red Cross was told = at its 48th Annual meeting in New Orleans this morning that it was = broke.=20 This year's disasters .. with the year less than half-over=85 has = taken it all and nobody...but nobody... has helped.=20 -------------------------------------------------------------------------= - =20 ORIGINAL SCRIPT=20 COURTESY STANDARD BROADCASTING CORPORATION LTD. (c) 1973 BY GORDON SINCLAIR=20 PUBLISHED BY STAR QUALITY MUSIC (SOCAN) A DIVISION OF UNIDISC MUSIC INC. 578 HYMUS BOULEVARD POINTE-CLAIRE, QUEBEC, CANADA, H9R 4T2=20 =20 -------------------------------------------------------------------------= - The True Story of how "The Americans" came to be and the magnificent events that followed its original broadcast ~~~o~~~ On June 5, 1973, Gordon Sinclair sat up in bed in Toronto = and turned on his TV set. The United States had just pulled out of the = Vietnamese War which had ended in a stalemate - a war fought daily on = TV, over the radio and in the press. The aftermath of that war resulted = in a world-wide sell-off of American investments, prices tumbled, the = United States economy was in trouble. The war had also divided the = American people, and at home and abroad it seemed everyone was = lambasting the United States.=20 He turned on his radio, twisted the dial and turned it off. = He picked up the morning paper. In print, he saw in headlines what he = had found on TV and radio - the Americans were taking a verbal beating = from nations around the world. Disgusted with what he saw and heard, he = was outraged!=20 At 10:30, on his arrival at CFRB to prepare his two pre-noon = broadcasts, he strode into his office and "dashed-off" two pages in 20 = minutes for LET'S BE PERSONAL at 11:45 am, and then turned to writing = his 11:50 newscast that was to follow. At 12:01 pm, the script for LET'S = BE PERSONAL was dropped on the desk of his secretary who scanned the = pages for a suitable heading and then wrote "Americans"" across the top = and filed it away. The phones were already ringing. Gordon Sinclair could not have written a book that could = have had a greater impact in the world than his two-page script for THE = AMERICANS. A book should have been written on the events that followed. = But, no one at CFRB, including Sinclair himself, could have envisioned = the reaction of the people of the United States - from presidents - = state governors - Congress - the Senate - all media including TV, radio, = newspapers, magazines - and from the "ordinary" American on the street. = Nor, could have the Canadian government - stunned by the response to = what has come to be regarded as one of Canada's greatest public = relations feats in the history of our relations with the United States = of America. But, how did Sinclair's tribute to Americans reach them? It = had been swept across the United States at the speed of a prairie fire = by American radio stations - first, a station in Buffalo called and = asked to be fed a tape copy of the broadcast with permission to use - = both freely given. Nearby American stations obtained copies from Buffalo = or called direct. By the time it reached the Washington, DC area, a = station had superimposed Sinc's broadcast over an instrumental version = of BRIDGE OVER TROUBLED WATER, and was repeating it at fixed times = several times-a-day. Congressmen and Senators heard it. It was read several times = into the Congressional Record. Assuming that it was on a phono (33 1/3 = rpm), Americans started a search for a copy. CFRB was contacted. To = satisfy the demand, CFRB started to make arrangements with AVCO, an = American record company, to manufacture and distribute it as a "single". = As they were finalizing a contract that would see all = royalties which would normally be due Gordon Sinclair be paid (at his = request) to the American Red Cross. Word was received that an = unauthorized record, using Sinclair's script but read by another = broadcaster, was already flooding the US market. (Subsequently, on = learning that this broadcaster had agreed to turn over his royalties to = the Red Cross, no legal action was taken).=20 Sinclair's recording of his own work (to which Avco had = added a stirring rendition of THE BATTLE HYMN OF THE REPUBLIC) did = finally reach record stores, and sold hundreds of thousands of copies, = but the potential numbers were depressed by the sale of the infringing = record. Other record producers and performers (including Tex Ritter) = obtained legal permission to make their own versions. In Ritter's case, = because of the first-person style of the script, Tex preceded his = performance with a proper credit to Sinclair as the author. The American = Red Cross received millions of dollars in royalties, and Gordon Sinclair = was present at a special ceremony acknowledging his donation. Advertisers using print media contacted CFRB for permission = to publish the text in a non-commercial manner; industrial plants asked = for the right to print the script in leaflet form to handout to their = employees.=20 Gordon Sinclair received invitations to attend and be = honoured at many functions in the United States which, by number and due = to family health problems at the time, he had to decline. However, CFRB = newscaster Charles Doering, was flown to Washington to give a public = reading of THE AMERICANS to the 28th National Convention of the United = States Air Force Association, held September 18, 1974 at the Sheraton = Park Hotel. His presentation was performed with the on-stage backing of = the U.S. Air Force Concert Band, joined by the 100-voice Singing = Sergeants in a special arrangement of The Battle Hymn of the Republic. 8 years after the first broadcast of THE AMERICANS, U.S. = President Ronald Reagan made his first official visit to Canada. At the = welcoming ceremonies on Parliament Hill, the new President praised "the = Canadian journalist who wrote that (tribute)" to the United States when = it needed a friend. Prime Minister Pierre Trudeau had Sinclair flown to = Ottawa to be his guest at the reception that evening.=20 Sinc had a long and pleasant conversation with Mr. Reagan. = The President told him that he had a copy of the record of THE AMERICANS = at his California ranch home when he was governor of the state, and = played it from time to time when things looked gloomy. On the evening of May 15th, 1984, following a regular day's = broadcasting, Gordon Sinclair suffered a heart attack. He died on May = 17th. As the word of his illness spread throughout the United States, = calls inquiring about his condition had been received from as far away = as Texas. The editorial in the Sarasota Herald-Tribune of May 28th was = typical of the reaction of the United States news media - A GOOD FRIEND = PASSES ON. U.S. President Ronald Reagan: "I know I speak for all = Americans in saying the radio editorial Gordon wrote in 1973 praising = the accomplishments of the United States was a wonderful inspiration. It = was not only critics abroad who forgot this nation's many great = achievements, but even critics here at home. Gordon Sinclair reminded us = to take pride in our nation's fundamental values." Former Prime Minister Pierre Trudeau: "Gordon Sinclair's = death ends one of the longest and most remarkable careers in Canadian = Journalism. His wit, irreverence, bluntness and off-beat views have been = part of the media landscape for so long that many Canadians had come to = believe he would always be there."=20 Following a private family service, two thousand people from = all walks of life filled Nathan Phillips Square in front of Toronto's = City Hall for a public service of remembrance organized by Mayor Art = Eggleton. Dignitaries joining him on the platform were Ontario = Lieutenant-Governor, John Black Aird; the Premier of Ontario, William = Davis; and Metro Chairman Paul Godfrey. Tens of thousands more joined = them through CFRB's live broadcast of the service which began = symbolically at 11:45 - the regular time of Sinc's daily broadcast of = LET'S BE PERSONAL.=20 As Ontario Premier William Davis said of him "The name = GORDON SINCLAIR could become the classic definition of a full life."=20 (recalled by J. Lyman Potts who was "there") -------------------------------------------------------------------- =20 =20 =20 ---------------------- multipart/alternative attachment An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: https://www.moypiano.com/ptg/pianotech.php/attachments/33/3d/2a/4c/attachment.htm ---------------------- multipart/alternative attachment--
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