lelliott19
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Dr. Curt Fields, who regularly portrays General Ulysses S Grant, addressed the Cadets at West Point on January 11, 2019. The following weekend, he made a visit to the Jackson County (AL) Historical Society in Scottsboro, Alabama, where he spoke before a group of 100+/- in the old train depot. At West Point USMA and at Scottsboro, AL, "General Grant" used the microphone - in spite of his desire that his impression be period correct.
Here is the latest dispatch, directly from General Grant himself, explaining why a microphone should be used, whenever one is available.
From Headquarters:
I wish to make a Policy Statement for myself and a recommendation to my fellow Living Historians re this photo. I was formerly in the camp of thought that using a microphone, as shown in this photo, was out of character and detrimental to an accurate portrayal. I no longer hold that belief, and am now firmly in the camp of thought that if a microphone is available to USE IT!
There are too many people who have hearing deficits and cannot easily hear a person speaking, or at all, if they don't use some amplification. Declining to use a hand-held microphone is declining all of your audience hearing all (or, for some, ANY) of what you have to say. To decline use of a hand-held microphone because it is 'out of character' is placing too many of your audience OUT OF HEARING and that is tragic. It really is presentational arrogance.
This particular venue is a pre-civil war railroad station. There were 100 people in attendance and on a very cold day.
After the talk, that ran about an hour, I was told many times, "I heard every word you said!" and "Thank you, for using the microphone. It was wonderful to hear every word clearly and without straining!" Not one person said, "Well, General Grant never used a microphone!" or "You were believable until you started using that microphone, then your credibility went out the window!" or "If only you had not used that microphone!"
I understand the feeling that "I can project so all the audience can hear me. I don't need to hold a microphone!" I have felt that way myself. However, when one 'projects' enough to fill a room full of people, a few things happen (or don't):
* your voice is destroyed because of the volume/demand on your vocal chords for 45 minutes to an hour;
* You cannot 'project' consistently throughout all of your talk to all of your audience (reference my earlier comments re people with hearing deficits/loss) and some people will miss some, or all, of what you say (this irritates people and no, it doesn't work to ask "Does anyone have a problem hearing me?" NO ONE is going to acknowledge that they have a PROBLEM with their hearing!
* When you are 'projecting', you lose any change/drop in nuance or voice inflection/intonation which add to your presentation and your character. When you have a microphone, you TALK with your audience, not SHOUT at them.
Our audiences often have older people (although age has no exclusive claim on hearing loss/deficits) and when people come to an event, they want to CLEARLY HEAR what is said. We shouldn't deny the people who have made the effort to come to our event, particularly when they could be somewhere else, to hear what they came for.So, before anyone should make a comment about lack of authenticity or character, think about being considerate of our audiences. Think of how to make their experience when they hear you speak as a Living Historian the best it can be.
USG
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— at Jackson County, Alabama, Historical Society, Scottsboro, Alabama.
From General Grant's Facebook page https://www.facebook.com/photo.php?fbid=10217991467322078&set=pob.1347395712&type=3&theater
I posted about the West Point address here https://civilwartalk.com/threads/reenactor-addresses-cadets-at-west-point-military-academy.154584
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