Theos-Talk Archives (March 2005 Message tt00778)

The recording of two talks by Leadbeater - "To those who mourn" and "The 
Great White Brotherhood" - was made in Sydney in 1932 by Columbia 
Gramophone (Aust) Pty Ltd on a 78rpm gramophone record (Reference PR.39, 
Part (= side) 1: SX.84, Part 2: SX.85), and was sold locally for five 
shillings. It does not seem to have been a commercial recording since the 
record label (apart from the printed Columbia data) is typewritten. I 
assume it was recorded either at the Columbia studios in Sydney, or at 
radio station 2GB (= "Giordano Bruno" for Annie Besant who claimed to 
have been Burno in a previous life) which was then owned and operated by 
the Theosophical Society, and originally had its transmitter in the 
grounds of The Manor. I do not know how many records were pressed, or 
what happened to the original master disk. I have one of the original 
records, and a tape recording made from it by the Australian Broadcasting 
Corporation using modern filtering technology to enable the voice to be 
more clearly heard. I do not know of any other recordings of Leadbeater, 
although he broadcast on a number of occasions over 2GB and his last act 
as a bishop in Australia (the consecration of his successor as Liberal 
Catholic Regionary Bishop of Australia) was broadcast on the station 
(essentially because Leadbeater was too ill to participate in a service 
in St Alban's Cathedral, and the consecration took place in the small 
chapel at The Manor).
Pathe Gazette filmed Leadbeater and others at the dedication of the Star 
Amphitheatre at Balmoral (a harbourside suburb of Sydney) but my efforts 
to track down a copy of the film (used as a segment on a newsreel) have 
thus far been unsuccesful.

Dr Gregory Tillett