Rare Lindbergh trial, ``Twelve Angry Men'' recordings found

By LYNN ELBER
AP Television Writer

LOS ANGELES (AP) The only known recording of a radio broadcast about the 1935 Lindbergh kidnapping trial, and a rare recording of the landmark TV drama, ``Twelve Angry Men,'' have been found, the Museum of Television & Radio announced.

The audio recording was made about the trial of Bruno Hauptmann for the kidnapping and killing of famed aviator Charles Lindbergh's baby son.

``The Lindbergh trial coverage offers unique insight into the judicial system in America at that time and will serve as a valuable document for historians and scholars,'' said museum President Robert M. Batscha.

The other discovery, the acclaimed 1954 jury room drama ``Twelve Angry Men,'' has not been seen in its entirety since the initial broadcast and was among the museum's most sought-after programs.

Broadcasting in its early days was considered disposable and so much was lost that the discoveries take on greater importance, said Robert Thompson, professor of media and popular culture at Syracuse University.

``Whenever anyone is able to reclaim even a little corner of broadcasting history, it warms our hearts,'' he said after the discoveries were announced Tuesday. ``It's a little bit more to sink our teeth into.''

The Lindbergh recordings features prominent New York defense attorney Samuel Leibowitz's daily accounts of the trial. His trial analysis was broadcast from the studio of New York radio station WHN and recorded on metal disc.

The recording was in the possession of Leibowitz's children, who also had a 16mm film copy of a kinescope of ``Twelve Angry Men.''

The museum learned of the historic recordings from filmmaker Joseph Consentino, who is producing a documentary about Leibowitz scheduled to air in June on the History Channel. Leibowitz died in 1978 at age 84.

Museum curators validated the material and remastered it. The recordings will be featured at the museum's Los Angeles and New York locations May 23 to July 6 and will be available for viewing afterward as part of the permanent collection.

Hundreds of reporters swarmed a New Jersey courtroom for Hauptmann's trial and radio networks offered daily coverage, but no recording of the coverage was known to exist, according to the museum.

Leibowitz had been hired by WHN to comment on the trial. During the approximately five hours of recordings, the attorney discussed the evidence, the jury's behavior and the strategy of the prosecution and defense.

He did not offer an opinion on Hauptmann's guilt or innocence. The defendant, who maintained he was innocent, was convicted of killing 20-month-old Charles A. Lindbergh Jr. and was executed.

``Twelve Angry Men,'' with a cast that included Robert Cummings and Franchot Tone, aired as part of CBS' ``Studio One'' series. It earned Emmys for writer Reginald Rose, director Franklin Schaffner and Cummings.

Rose adapted it as a movie starring Henry Fonda in 1957 and it received several Academy Award nominations. It was remade in 1997 as a TV movie for Showtime featuring Jack Lemmon, Ossie Davis and George C. Scott.

In 1976, CBS gave the museum the first half of the program, a partial copy that was the only one known to exist. Because of his interest in the law, Leibowitz had requested a kinescope of the program from CBS.

``Twelve Angry Men,'' Syracuse University professor Thompson said, ``is considered one of the great works in the canon of American television.''

But the Lindbergh find is particularly exciting, he said.

A recording provides the texture of the event in a way a court transcript cannot, he said. The trial's intense coverage also is a reminder of how long we've lived in a media-driven age.

``The problems with us now, with regard to 'stories of the century' mentality, the feeding frenzy the media can create among themselves and listeners and viewers, is a phenomenon that has been with us for a while,'' Thompson said. ``It didn't start with Monica or O.J.''

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