Lamont Dale Allan Oral History Project
Interview with Lamont Allan
Date of Interview: November 24, 2008 ; San Diego, California
Interviewer: Becca Maughan
Transcriber: Becca Maughan
Begin Tape 1, Side 1
Maughan: Grandpa, what do you first remember about the media growing up. Did you have a television or did you have a radio or what did you have?
Allan: We started out with thee… I remember the radio and they would have serials on there just like you'd have on soap opera now only ours was just on the radio. And we would sit around at night and listen. There was the murder mysteries, and some love stories but mainly there was about four or five of the detective and murder mysteries. I can't right now remember the names of them but we would sit at night and we'd listen to them each week.
Maughan: Grandpa do you remember how old you were when you started listening to the radio, different things on the radio?
Allan: Well I think I'd be around, that I remember really getting interested, when we were probably seven or eight and we'd listen to little orphan Annie and those types of plays that they would talk about or tell on the radio But then as we got just a little over ten or twelve why it was exciting when the World Series come on. We would all be sitting around listening to our… our favorite team at that time was the Yankees and the Dodgers. When the Yankees and the Dodgers played why everybody would be tuned in to the…hear the World Series and that was really an exciting time for us.
Maughan: So who were you wanting to win the dodgers or the Yankees?
Allan: I always was rootin for the Yankees they were my favorite team.
Maughan: Did you ever listen to the news on the radio?
Allan: Yes. News was exciting to us. I remember listening especially when World War... when I became really more interested in listening to the news was when World War, when World II started and I remember we were on our way over to Harlem farm going down to milk the cows and Uncle Ernest had is radio on and we heard that Peal Harbor had been bombed and of course that was just an exciting time for us. We were always glued to the radio to hear what was taking place.
Maughan: But you never saw anything. On television cause you didn't have televisions right?
Allan: No we didn't have anything on television. But when we went to the movies on the weekend before, as the movie started, before the main movie started there always was the world news and that's where we got to see these things once a week, when we went to the movie why we would see the world news and they would show the events that were taking place in the world.
Maughan: So how old were you when you got a television. Do you remember?
Allan: Uh when we got a television it would have been in 1953. But when we were going to dental school from 1949...
Maughan: So you never had a television in your home growing up? It was’t until you were married.
Allan: No the television when we were going to dental school in, between 1949 and 1953. It would have been about 1952 that the first television came out in that area. And we would go over to one of our friends who were members of the church there and I remember we went over there one evening and we watched I believe it was Joe Lewis and Billy Con, I think was the name I'm not sure who that was ....but we saw a heavy weight champion fight at that time on TV and that was really exciting for us and it was just a little… about an 8 inch television and it was black and white.
Maughan: So the way that the news is today where they have all these talk shows that give you the pros and cons of different presidents that you're voting for. Was that how like it was back then? Or did you ever even see the president's that were running for president?
Allan: The only time that we would see the president running and it wasn't until later in my life was when we went to the movies and they would show… they would have a thing before as the movies started the first thing that come up was the news and we would see the election results and see some of the campaigns and a few things like that.
Maughan: Grandpa as you watch television today and compare it with when you watched television growing up what differences do you see?
Allan: One of the big things that I see is a moral change that is shown in the films... and on the TV today. When it started out we were watching it why there wasn't anything any violence in the TV programs there was cowboy things it was romance stories and that… but I was just amazed the other day as I watching TV how much, how much violence, really violence was shown on the TV especially down into the younger age groups. It was even violence in the younger age groups and as I was sitting there watching it I wondered what kind of an effect this was going to have on the really, the young people that are so impressionable these days and how much this will involve their lives.
Maughan: Do you notice anything else about it?
Allan: I notice that modesty and... there doesn't seem to be any modesty on the, there and sex is so sexual oriented. Pictures and movies are so common on TV now that it just takes away the morality of...especially the women. Things that are showing on now on TV it just amazes me and it surprises me at how much there is shown on TV now.
Maughan: When you watch the elections and all the debates and everything that happen before the election. Did you notice anything different about that??
Allan: The thing that I noticed really a difference is that it seems like it started almost a year ago now,... a year and a half ago when they started on TV and for the last year that's all we've seen on the campaigns and that going out is... and it shows so much more into detail now. These candidates now if they... if these candidates now if they make one little mistake or that now why the media really jumps right on it. On both parties. Not just on one. And there's more hostility that’s shown between the two candidates and rose between the candidates and the things that you get into are so much more prevalent when your sitting there watching it. It impresses you more than it does when we used to just listen to a few talks. Listen to the candidates talk on the radio. And today, unless we were too young to notice it but today the media is extremely rough and hard on the candidates today. They didn't get into it back on radio like they do on television. As we were growing up one of the exciting things that we would listen to on Saturday night was the hit parade and it was the top ten tunes and they'd play... or maybe it was the top twenty-five tunes and they'd start at twenty five and then come down and we were all excited to wait and see which tune it was that would be the number one.
Maughan: So you listened to a lot of music on the radio??
Allan: The thing that was most exciting to us was the tunes that they were playing then were the tunes that we were... dancing was…was a big a part of our lives. We would go every Saturday night we would go over to a big dance floor where they had eleven peace bands play and we would dance from 9 o clock to 12 o clock every Saturday night. And that was an exciting time for us and they would play the tunes that we listened to on the hit parade so those things were exciting to us in our time. And then as we got onto television one of the things that early television has say come on and there was a lot of entertainment from Lawrence Welk and he was on for many years and this was...we enjoyed watching that. But now that Lawrence Welks gone some of those programs like that aren't there now that we really, that I really used to enjoy in the early part of the TV as it come on.
Maughan: Grandpa, since you've been growing up and you had your radio to your first television how has that media changed in your house as far as things that you have in your house to watch?
Allan: Well the things that have changed so much… When we started out we had a little 8 inch black and white TV then they got up to the bigger ones up to the 20-inch and so black and whites and we were really enjoying that. Then they brought in the color TV which was really great for us. And we enjoyed that but then come along the VCR where had a VCR and we could just sit back in the chair and changed the channels and that and then they got into the DVD players which was even greater. And now they got into the high definition and all of the bigger channels and its nice when I have my grandchildren here so they can do those things for me. Especially on my computer back there. There’s only two or three things I can do on that and my grandchildren get onto that computer and I ask them to do things for me and I've got a little 8 and 9 year old grandchildren to get on there and show me how to get programs on it.
Maughan: So you’re saying with all the new things that are out its more complicated for you now?
Allan: This high technology is just absolutely amazing and fascinating to me. And it’s beyond my comprehension and past my time when I can operate it all myself. It’s now for the younger generations.
Maughan: So with all the new things thought that you can watch like new football games and you can see planet earth and a lot of different things are you enjoying the television more that you used to?
Allan: Yes very much so. They have so much to offer us now. Programs that takes us all over the world and into these different places that they show you on its just fascinating to watch cultures and that of other people and that that we’re not able to say as I was growing up. This has really been wonderful for me. And I can see into the future what it must be gonna be for you people now.
Maughan: What about different things like medical procedures and stuff that you’re now able to watch on television. Have you ever watched any of those?
Allan: Yes I’ve watched on TV the various different things and how that has progressed and I was sitting there watching TV tonight now… a doctor can sit back there and never see the patient and the operation it was showing how he can move the things the instruments and do the operation watching the TV and not even be with the patient. They were doing a knee surgery…
Maughan: He’s with the patient but he’s actually watching it on a screen what he’s doing on the knee or something?
Allan: Yes he’s sitting there watching a screen and he’s watching on there and doing the surgery by watching on a screen the things that he is doing and he isn’t even in the same room with the patient. This can be a specialist in another city a long ways away that can be sitting there doing this here surgery from his office there a specialist that’s doing there.
Maughan: Showing another doctor what to do?
Allan: No he’s doing the surgery himself. He is operating the surgery equipment right there that is doing it on the patient and he is doing it. He could be doing it form New York and the operations could be taking place in Los Angeles and he’s sitting there doing the surgery from his office there.
Maughan: What do you think about the computer and how you can look up on the computer all the different stuff and even all the media what the media puts on the computers and things?
Allan: Oh I think its wonderful technology… and that they have today and I think now is everyday it seems like they come out with things that we were just hitting the tip of the iceberg is what they are getting into now the advanced and the computer technology they have now and its just beyond my imagination what its going to be like for our young children in twenty years from now what they’ll be seeing.
