Podcast Summary:

Podcast: Harold's Old Time Radio
Episode: That Was the Year 37-03-01 (05) Spotlighting the Year - 1913
Date: September 14, 2025
Host: Harold's Old Time Radio

Overview

This episode of Harold's Old Time Radio is a dramatized, documentary-style review of significant historical and cultural events from the year 1913. With a mixture of reenacted dialogues, narration, music, and period-appropriate storytelling, the show provides listeners with a vivid snapshot of global events and pop culture, from Mexico’s political turmoil to the rise of ragtime, women’s suffrage, and the opening of the Panama Canal.

Key Discussion Points and Insights

1. Political Upheaval in Mexico

• Events:
  • The fall of President Francisco I. Madero amid revolutionary turmoil, orchestrated by Felix Diaz and Victoriano Huerta.
  • Madero’s resistance and eventual forced resignation, followed by his assassination.
• Insight:
  • The dramatization highlights the fragility of democratically elected governments in revolutionary Latin America.
• Key Quotes:
  • “I will fight them to the last. They want me to resign. I will not resign. I was elected by the people. I am the constituted president. I will die before I will resign.” – President Francisco Madero ([03:07])
  • “I have done it. I have resigned. Now, General Huerta, what next?” – President Madero ([03:38])
  • “But peace and prosperity proved elusive. Five days later, ex President Madero and his ex Vice President were shot to death.” – Narrator ([04:27])
• Timestamps:
  • Start: [02:16]
  • Madero’s resistance: [03:07]
  • Resignation: [03:38]
  • Aftermath: [04:27]

2. British Women’s Suffrage Movement

• Events:
  • Arrest, trial, and hunger strike of Emmeline Pankhurst, a leading suffragette.
  • Pankhurst’s defiance in courtroom and subsequent travel to the United States.
  • Granting of women’s suffrage in England (1918) as a coda to her struggle.
• Insight:
  • The segment spotlights the courage and militancy of the suffragists, the gendered injustices in the legal system, and Pankhurst’s enduring legacy.
• Key Quotes:
  • “Certainly not.” (on promising not to resume activism if granted bail) – Emmeline Pankhurst ([05:06])
  • “This movement will go on whether I live or die. These women will go on until women have obtained the common right of citizenship throughout a civilized world.” – Emmeline Pankhurst ([06:29])
  • “I am sorry to inform you … your right to enter the United States will be decided.” – US Official ([07:45])
  • “I would not allow unjust detention in England and I'll not suffer it in the United States. … It is their business to get the vote for themselves.” – Emmeline Pankhurst ([07:56])
• Timestamps:
  • Arrest: [04:50]
  • Courtroom speech: [06:29]
  • Arrival in the US: [07:33]
  • Suffrage milestone: [08:16]

3. Cultural Shifts: The Ragtime Craze

• Events:
  • Transformation of American social dancing—introduction of animal-inspired dance crazes and the rise of ragtime music.
  • Mention of Irving Berlin’s (Israel Balin) early work portending the era of jazz and swing.
• Insight:
  • Ragtime not only changed music but also expressed the boisterous, dynamic mood of early 20th-century America.
• Key Quotes:
  • “Lyrics were bereft of reason, if not rhyme. But 1913 ragtime was more than mere music, far greater than just a series of new dance steps. … For ragtime was an index of a national mood, a criterion of American frame of mind, a forerunner of jazz and swing.” – Narrator ([09:21])
• Timestamps:
  • Ragtime section: [09:21]

4. Milestones in Technology and Society

• Events:
  • President Woodrow Wilson triggers the opening blast clearing the Panama Canal ([11:01]).
  • For the first time, a US President rides in an automobile to his inauguration.
  • Tributes to early film stars, especially Mary Pickford.
  • Ongoing natural disasters shaping the nation, such as the 1913 flood in Ohio and Indiana.
• Key Quotes:
  • “President Woodrow Wilson touched a button which set off 8 tons of dynamite, destroying the Gamboa Dyke, the last obstruction to navigation from Atlantic to Pacific through the Panama Canal.” – Narrator ([11:01])
  • “That was the year that for the first time in history, a US President rode to his inauguration in an automobile instead of a horse drawn carriage.” – Narrator ([11:14])
• Timestamps:
  • Panama Canal: [11:01]
  • Presidential automobile: [11:14]

5. Loss and Memory

• Events:
  • Death of poet Joaquin Miller (Cincinnatus Heine), “the poet of the Sierras.”
• Key Quotes:
  • “The world mourned as his ashes were cast to the winds from the crest of one of the peaks in the Sierra mountains he so loved.” – Narrator ([09:20])

6. The Sounds of 1913

• Events:
  • Excerpts from contemporary songs, providing a musical backdrop (“Johnny O’Connor Bought an Automobile”).
• Timestamps:
  • Song segment (with period lyrics): [11:45]

Notable Quotes & Memorable Moments

• “What we women intend to do will be the coming reign of terror.” – Emmeline Pankhurst, courtroom speech ([06:01])
• “Senor Presidente… here is a copy of the telegram General Diaz sent yesterday to President Taft.” – Official ([02:45])
• “Order. Order. I must have order. There will be order in this court.” – Judge during Pankhurst trial ([05:56])
• “That was the year that America experienced the Terpsichorean metamorphosis. … a new and raucous genus of American dancers.” – Narrator ([09:21])
• “The right of suffrage was granted to English women over the age of 30.” – Narrator ([08:16])

Timeline of Important Segments

• [02:16] – Mexico’s Revolutionary Turmoil
• [04:50] – Emmeline Pankhurst Arrest and Trial
• [06:29] – Pankhurst’s Courtroom Speech
• [07:33] – Pankhurst’s Arrival in the US
• [09:21] – Ragtime’s Cultural Ascendance
• [09:20] – Death of Joaquin Miller
• [10:23] – 1913 Floods, Natural Disasters
• [11:01] – Opening of the Panama Canal
• [11:14] – Presidential Modernization: The Automobile
• [11:45] – Musical Moment: “Johnny O’Connor Bought an Automobile”

Tone and Style

True to old-time radio drama, the episode blends factual historical narration, period music, and dramatized, sometimes poetic, dialogue. The tone is reverent towards history but lively, almost cinematic, making bygone events feel urgent and personal.

For Listeners

If you’ve never heard this episode, expect a compact, engaging immersion into the year 1913—its politics, social transformations, music, and inventions—brought to life through the unique storytelling flair and period flavor that only classic radio can provide.