This week on From the Vault we offer Pacifica Radio’s Halloween Fantasy: Vampires, first broadcast on KPFA in Berkeley, California on October 31, 1971. This original program mixes music, literary excerpts, dramatic readings and humor to present an audio history of Bram Stoker’s immortal Count Dracula character – and the man who set the precedence for Dracula on film – Bela Lugosi. The original producer and host, Mitchell Harding, takes us along on his macabre journey.

From the Vault is presented as part of the Pacifica Radio Archives Preservation and Access Project.

PURCHASE a copy of this program or purchase copies of the archival recordings used within this episode. To purchase a CD copy of this program by phone, please call Pacifica Radio Archives at 800.735.0230 x 262.

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This week on From The Vault, we continue our celebration of Hispanic Heritage Month by featuring a rare 1968 recording of the Peruvian-born American author Carlos Castaneda speaking about his first book The Teaching of Don Juan: A Yaqui Way of Knowledge, which was originally published by the University of California Press as a work of anthropology and became an acclaimed best-seller. Then, exploring the work of another anthropologist of sorts, we spend some time with Mexican singer Lila Downs. Raised in California and educated in Minnesota, Downs returned to her Mixtec mother’s home state of Oaxaca, Mexico to rediscover and connect with her indigenous roots, experiences that have become a central theme in her music. Lila Downs first performed on Pacifica Radio in 1998, but the recording we present today is from her performance at a KPFK – Los Angeles benefit concert in 2001, the year before her song Burn It Blue from the film Frida was nominated for an Academy Award for Best Song.

From the Vault is presented as part of the Pacifica Radio Archives Preservation and Access Project.

PURCHASE a copy of this program or purchase copies of the archival recordings used within this episode. To purchase a CD copy of this program by phone, please call Pacifica Radio Archives at 800.735.0230 x 262.

Click here to send an email to From the Vault.

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This week on From The Vault we continue our celebration of National Latino Heritage Month by presenting the two outstanding folkloric groups that symbolize the cultural and political resistance of the Latino community indigenous to North and South America.

We begin with a concert held at the La Peña Cultural Center in Berkeley California, which opened its doors in June 1975. Pacifica station KPFA in Berkeley recorded this early La Peña event in January 1976 featuring San Jose’s Flor Del Pueblo. Then, we will hear a 1977 performance by outspoken Chilean group Inti-Illimani, who was on tour the day of the Chilean coup on September 11, 1973. They were unable to return to their country while dictator Augusto Pinochet was in power; in the meantime they toured to raise awareness of the atrocities committed by this dictator and Pacifica station WPFW was there to record this 1977 concert in Washington, DC.

From the Vault is presented as part of the Pacifica Radio Archives Preservation and Access Project.

PURCHASE a copy of this program or purchase copies of the archival recordings used within this episode. To purchase a CD copy of this program by phone, please call Pacifica Radio Archives at 800.735.0230 x 262.

Click here to send an email to From the Vault.

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This week on From The Vault we reflect on two women who inspired thousands, maybe millions, of people with their work. First, we listen to a rare March 1980 interview with Crystal Lee Sutton, the textile worker from North Carolina who inspired the Oscar-winning film Norma Rae, starring Sally Field. Sutton died on September 14, 2009. The second half of this week’s show will feature a live performance in Berkeley, California by the legendary folk singer and songwriter Malvina Reynolds along with Margie Adam at a benefit for the Women’s Library Workers in 1977.

From the Vault is presented as part of the Pacifica Radio Archives Preservation and Access Project.

PURCHASE a copy of this program or purchase copies of the archival recordings used within this episode. To purchase a CD copy of this program by phone, please call Pacifica Radio Archives at 800.735.0230 x 262.

Click here to send an email to From the Vault.

Podcast: Play in new window | Download