PHARAOH'S TRUMPET HERALDS WAR

Rotorua Morning Post, Issue 5321, 6 February 1947, Page 3

PHARAOH'S TRUMPET HERALDS WAR

RELICS FROM TOMBS PLAYED FOR FIRST TIME IN U CENTURIES. j A V.r* One of tbe most romantic and unusual broa-deasts in the, history of radio was tiie blowing' of'tbe trumpets of Tutankbamen, after 34 centuries of silenee. Rex Keating, in a reeent B.B.C. broadeast, described tbe exciting; and mysterious "ineidents" tbat aceolrapanied the broadeast. It took six • months to yet the mnseum authofities in Cairo to p'ive their permission, and in the meantime the broadeast was widely publieised, and captured public ima^i nation" everywhere. The B.B.C. arranged to relay it, and so did one of the big- American radio networks, and-a larye nunibeh of European stations. JT-ix days before the broadeast a British military bandsman was • selected to blow the two trumpets, and he beg'an to work out the various possible notes in daily rehearsals. ° The broadeast was to lake tne form of an interview with Alfred Lueas — the man whose life work has been the restoration of the hundreds of objects found in Tutankhamen's tomb. Then the "ineidents" 'began. The silver trumpet (the other is of copper) had crystallised with the passage of 3000 odd years and was as brittle almost as gdass. Focr days before the broadeast, it was found to have been so damaged during a rehearsal that it was feared that it would not be usable, and when Lueas heard whai had happened, he was so upset that his heart gave out and he collapsed. In the meantime, superhuman efforts v/ere made to restore the silver trumpet. Lueas was still in hospital, and tho broadeast was onlv 24 hours off. On the way t0 the broadeast, Keating was involved in his first accident for years, when his catr was run into by a runaway horse and carriage. Just before the broadeast, the electric light was found to be eut oft" at the main and it was eompletely dark, but a frantie search produced two watehmen's electric lanterns. By this timo, Lueas had arrived, accompanied hy a doetor and looking very shaky indeed. With five minutes to g o, hoth the watchmen's lanterns failed, leaving the party in total darkness and with only two minutes to go, someone produeed one eandle. Then, with the looming velies of a long dead eivilisation stretching into the shadows all around them, and with only that one tiny flickei'ing light, the broadeast began, and the trumpets were introdueed with the words: "The trumpets of the Pharoah Tutankbamen, Lord of the Two Lands, Kiny of the North , and South, Beloved of Ra." Atier the broadeast, letters eame in fr:.m all over the worl.l, many of them j drawing attention to the mueli publieised curse of Tutankhamen's tomb, j alleging ihat these^vere war trumpets and that by broadeast ing them far and wide Keating had released the cuv.se j of war on the world. ; Six mor.ths later, war I>17 > brcak | out.