Many thanks to SWLing Post contributor, William Lee, who notes that the radio documentary Elettra is now available to rent (A$5.10) or download via Vimeo. Note that this program has geographic restrictions and may be limited to streaming in Australia:
ELETTRA from Ronin Films on Vimeo.
Encouraged by her friendship with Australian broadcaster, Ben Starr, the Princess opens her home and her heart to recall and relive her family’s saga.
Her own story is counter-pointed by her memories of her father and all he achieved. As a girl, Elettra watched her father create magic. For her, the use of radio technology to save the?lives of the Titanic survivors and to track down criminals was just part of her father’s wizardry. He had started a revolution. Wireless became the most fabulous invention of the 19th century: the public thought it was miraculous, and leading scientists of the day could not understand how it worked.
Elettra inherited the Marconi empire when she was seven years old. Having spent her life travelling the world to promote her father’s legacy, the Princess now plans to turn her crumbling family palace in Bologna into a radiant academy for the arts and science.
From the gardens of enchanted villas, to the corridors of the Vatican, we peek into the cracks of a new “Dolce Vita”, where nothing is quite what it seems.For all her joyful enthusiasm, the Princess has found little support for her plan in Italy’s dysfunctional ministries and is searching far beyond. Can she make her dream come true?
Looks like a very interesting video. I met Elettra back in 2009 in Rome: https://soldersmoke.blogspot.com/2009/09/meeting-princess-elettra-marconi.html
OMG – I should not attempt to post comments from the pub – in my message above…
Contentment should read “content”
LOL – OK now back to the beer!
This sounds interesting. Not that i would pay, but i cant even, because i live in the usa and its not available. I thought the internet was without borders, thats why we dont need shortwave anymore! Im sure there are workarounds but im getting the feeling all this ‘freedom’ is for cooporate interests, not mine.
A bit O/T, but welcome to the rest of the world – we’ve been putting up with that from US sources for years…
Back on-topic: I read Marc Raboy’s recent biography “Marconi: The Man Who Networked the World” earlier this year, and although it’s a bit of a slog – 700 or so pages, plus 100+ pages of notes & references – I can thoroughly recommend it. It’s comprehensive, quite readable & interesting, and does a good job of putting Marconi’s more troublesome aspects (to modern eyes at least e.g. his support for Mussolini) in historical context.
My only real complaint is that it occasionally gets a bit mixed up with terminology in places (mostly because some of it’s changed over the last 100 years or so!). But apart from that, it’s a good read, and probably the most thorough story of Marconi’s life & inventions yet published.
At the risk of being very off-topic, yes RonF is so right!
The USA has so many restrictions on IP contentment access that here at Freemans Reach I run two WiFi networks in my house. One in located in Australia ( where I live) and the other network pretends to be in Harrisburg PA (via a proxy service and DNS system) so I can access USA content that is blocked from the rest of the world. Without the PA based network most of the USA television, radio and media website content I would want to access would be blocked from me. My fav action is KROQ in LA, without pretending to be in the USA I have no access.