White House Photographers / Jane Monheit / Submarines

Welcome to AMERICAN MOSAIC - VOA's radio magazine in Special English.

(THEME)

This is Doug Johnson. On our program today ...

We play songs by Jane Monheit ...

answer a question about submarines ...

and, tell about an exhibit of pictures by White House photographers.

HOST:

The Corcoran Gallery of Art in Washington, D.C., recently showed one-hundred-seventy-three news photographs. Some of America's best news photographers took the pictures. These men and women work for news services, magazines and newspapers. They belong to the White House News Photographers' Association. Their exhibit was called "The Eyes of History." Shirley Griffith tells us more.

ANNCR:

The Corcoran Gallery exhibit showed some of the top news photographs of the year. These images were made both in and out of the White House.

Time Magazine photojournalist Diana Walker says photographers in the president's house are restricted from some areas. But she had more freedom than many other photographers. For example, she took photographs of former President Bill Clinton during his final hours in the White House. She was in the Oval Office as Mr. Clinton finished working on some papers. Soon the only paper on his desk was a letter to the new president. She took a picture as Mr. Clinton looked out the Oval Office windows for the last time. Her picture captured the feelings of America's forty-second president on an important day in his life.

Other photos in the exhibit showed very different events. For example, Doug Mills of the Associated Press photographed a sailor wounded in the bombing of the Navy ship U-S-S Cole. The ship was attacked last October in Yemen. The wounded man is shown attending a memorial service for the seventeen bombing victims. He sits in a wheelchair, receiving oxygen through a tube. The sailor and his wife press their heads together as they mourn.

Washington Times photographer Gerald Herbert also took an emotional picture. He photographed an emergency medical worker in Maryland. This man is holding the hand of an old woman patient as she dies. Tension and loss show clearly on his young face.

A photo by Dudley Brooks of the Washington Post caught a happier moment. His photograph shows the great basketball player Michael Jordan laughing. The picture was taken during a press conference announcing his new job as an official of the Washington Wizards basketball team.

Exhibit visitors say the White House news photographers' pictures will continue to live in their memories. And reports say the photographs may be published in a book. Then many more people will be able to enjoy "The Eyes of History."

HOST:

Our VOA listener question this week comes from Niger. Igbuan Benson Bamidele asks about a kind of ship called a submarine.

The idea of a boat or ship that can travel under water is extremely old. No one knows who first had the idea. However, the first boat that could travel under water was built by a Dutch inventor named Cornelius van Drebbel. He demonstrated his invention in England in about Sixteen-Twenty. It was a small boat that was covered in animal skins. However, no one at that time could think of a good use for a submarine.

A young inventor named David Bushnell built the first American submarine in Seventeen-Seventy-Six. Mr. Bushnell designed a craft he called the Turtle. It was used during the American Revolutionary War. Mr. Bushnell's submarine attacked the British warship H-M-S Eagle in New York harbor. He tried to attach a bomb to the side of the ship. He was not successful. However, reports of the event said he severely frightened the crew of the Eagle.

The submarine was first used successfully as a weapon during America's Civil War in the Eighteen-Sixties. A submarine built by the Confederate States sank the Union ship U-S-S Housatonic near Charleston, South Carolina. The little submarine was named the Hunley. It pushed a bomb into the side of the Housatonic. However, the small submarine and its crew were lost after the attack.

The United States Navy bought its first submarine in Nineteen-Hundred. Nuclear powered submarines were built fifty years later. The world's first nuclear submarine was the U-S-S Nautilus. It was launched in Nineteen-Fifty-Four. The U-S-S Nautilus is no longer an active submarine. It is a museum open to the public in the harbor in Groton, Connecticut. Anyone who visits can walk through and examine the submarine.

Today, submarines carry a crew of about one-hundred fifty members. Some are huge -- more than one-hundred-sixty-eight meters long.

Recently, the Confederate submarine Hunley was found on the bottom of Charleston Bay. It was brought to the surface for study.If you have a computer, you can find more information about the Hunley and other submarines. Have your computer search for H-U-N-L-E-Y or the word "submarine."

HOST:

Jane Monheit (MON-hite) is being praised as the best young jazz singer performing today. She is twenty-three years old, and has just released her second album. Shep O'Neal tells us about her.

ANNCR:

Jane Monheit grew up near New York City. Her parents were professional musicians.

Jane Monheit studied voice at the Manhattan School of Music and won second place in the Thelonius Monk Vocal Competition. That led to her first album, "Never Never Land." It was released last year and sold more than sixty-thousand copies.

Jane Monheit says she included songs in the album that she loved as a child. The title song is from the show "Peter Pan."

((CUT 1: NEVER NEVER LAND))

Critics say Mizz Monheit's voice is clear, smooth and controlled. They especially like her new album, "Come Dream With Me." They say her singing now demonstrates great feeling. Here is an example, "Spring Can Really Hang You Up The Most."

((CUT 2: SPRING CAN REALLY HANG YOU UP THE MOST))

Now Jane Monheit is traveling across the United States performing her songs. She says that singing good songs makes her happy. We leave you now with another good song from Jane Monheit's new album, "Hit The Road To Dreamland."

((CUT 3: HIT THE ROAD TO DREAMLAND))

HOST:

This is Doug Johnson. I hope you enjoyed our program today. And I hope you will join us again next week for AMERICAN MOSAIC - VOA's radio magazine in Special English.

This AMERICAN MOSAIC program was written by Nancy Steinbach, Paul Thompson and Jerilyn Watson. Our studio engineer was Tom Verba. And our producer was Paul Thompson.