On September 27, 1903, a Southern Railway mail train left the tracks near Danville, Virginia. Eleven of eighteen crew members died. The engineer, Joseph Broady — known by the daredevil nickname "Steve" — was at the controls when the brakes failed on the Stillhouse Trestle.
The ballad that followed made him famous in death in ways he never was in life. It also got his name wrong, his marital status wrong, and a few other things besides.
Broady may have been ordered by the railroad company to make up for lost time — and the company docked engineers' pay for every thirty minutes they ran behind, which tells you something about what they expected. The song that memorialized him became its own kind of wreck. Henry Whitter recorded the first version in 1923; Vernon Dalhart's recording the following year became the first million-selling record in country music history. Then came the lawsuits. Multiple parties claimed authorship, the case went to the U.S. Supreme Court, and the Court ultimately awarded ownership to RCA Victor. A man died doing his job. His story became a hit record. The hit record became a legal battle. In this episode, Ann Gillespie puts Broady in conversation with a Singer who has carried his story for generations — and who knows it better, in some ways, than he does. What does it mean to be remembered? What do we owe the people our songs preserve?
A meditation on memory, speed, and the strange afterlife of a man who just wanted to do his job.
Cast
Engineer — Holden Howard
Singer — Celeste Holmes
Production Team
Director — Michael McNulty | Musical Guest/Narrator — William Ritter | Sound Effects Design — Rosa Bott | Audio Engineer — Samuel O'Sullivan | Poster Art — Jess Shadrick
"The Nightmare of the Old 97" radio play is written by Ann Gillespie. Commentary written by Natalie Axton.
