When the talks for April Conference, 1967, were printed in the Improvement Era, the photographs that always illustrate the Conference reports featured the technology that was used to broadcast Conference over western radio and television stations, and by direct wire broadcast to Church members far from the Tabernacle. Captions here are as they appeared in the Era
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Thursday morning, 6 April 1967
(Conference was held over three days in that era – a schedule that always included April 6. When April 6 fell in the middle of the week, as it did in 1967, there would be a break in the Conference, a day when no general sessions were held, although there were always auxiliary conferences and meetings of patriarchs, and mission presidents, and welfare workers, enough to fill that day.)
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Dr. Twain Tippetts, dean of School of Fine Arts, Utah State University in Logan, listens to conference on radio in his campus office.
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On Sunday, April 9, five hundred Saints and friends gathered at Mountpottinger Branch chapel in Belfast, Northern Ireland, to hear Conference.
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Francis Boyer at the master control for translation equipment.
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Eduardo Balderas translates the Prophet’s words for Spanish-speaking people.
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At Airdrie Branch, Scottish Mission, Latter-day Saints hear by direct wire messages of their beloved leaders.
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Controls of the complicated relay system for general conference.
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Listening to conference on car radio in motor company showroom at Price, Utah, are Ruel Redd, Stewart Snow, John Burton.
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Excitement was high In Esbjerg, Denmark, as Latter-day Saints listened for first time to general conference in their native tongue.
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German Saints at Hamburg Ward, Hamburg Stake, give serious attention to Sunday broadcast of general conference, translated in German.
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Members of the Church in Sunderland Stake, England, enter stake center to hear direct wire broadcast of general conference.
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At Haag am Hausruck Branch in Austria, Latter-day Saints hear Sunday broadcast of general conference.
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Saints of the South German Mission, Munich, Germany, hurry to chapel where general conference will be heard via direct wire.
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Sister Lola Eastmans listens to conference at a grocery store in Woodruff, Utah.
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One of three television cameras in the Salt Lake Tabernacle.
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Booths where simultaneous translations of conference messages are relayed in six languages.
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Earphones relay translated sermons.
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Family of Bishop Cleve A. Raymond, Moab (Utah) Third ward, San Juan Stake, enjoy conference over television.
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Sister Beverly Bell of Randolph (Utah) Ward, Woodruff Stake, watches conference.
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Electronic equipment is checked for receiving general conference via direct wire at Southampton branch chapel, British South Mission.
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Robert Nielson of Huntington (Utah) First Ward, Emery Stake, watches conference from hospital bed.
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One of the transmitting towers through which words of Church leaders were carried by airwaves to Saints throughout the world.
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In Monticello (Utah) Ward, San Juan Stake, boys and men listen to Saturday evening priesthood session.
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These photos are great! I remember trying to get April 1978 Conference on the radio in Santana do Livramento, Brasil. We borrowed a portable radio and went up the hill right on the open border with Uruguay and barely picked up the broadcast. I don’t remember where it was coming from, probably Porto Alegre, a several-hour bus ride away.
Yes, great photographs. I really like the one of the men listening on the car radio.
Back in the day when the Church was in Utah and missionary work was focused on Europe.
I see our American architects thoughtfully provided the Saints of Belfast with basketball hoops. A football pitch (“soccer field”) would have been more useful. Who knows, maybe there’s one outside.
Let me see if I can guess the 6 languages into which conference was translated in 1967. (The pictures offer a few hints.) Danish, Dutch, French, German, Portuguese, Spanish. Am I close?
I don’t know, Jim, but your list seems likely.
It is so cool to see a photograph of Eduardo Balderas. I know that name from my mission – I would always try to see who translated things, and his name came up a lot.
Is that Elder Delbert Stapley in the first TV image?
It’s surprising that there were pictures from Monticello and Moab (the 3rd ward, no less) and all were in the San Juan Stake. It’s nearly 60 miles from Moab to Monticello. That’s a big area for a stake in Utah, even in that sparsely populated desert country.
I remember seeing once on TV during this era an accidental shot of the guy sitting on the camera lift in the center of the tabernacle. That camera was used for the direct head on shots of the speakers, and could be raised or lowered. A shot from the balcony at the rear happened to catch the camera operator on the raised camera wearing a T-shirt and jeans, no tie or slacks. At least the T-shirt was white.
JRL, I thought the same thing, knowing the name from my mission in Mexico.
He translated pretty much entire LDS hymnal, the Doctrine and Covenants and Pearl of Great Price single-handedly. He was also primary translator for the temple ceremony (first language other than English), numberless manuals, and a re-translation of the Book of Mormon.
According to an Ensign article
“In addition to numerous manuals, handbooks, articles, missionary tracts, and other supplementary materials through the years, his list of major book translations is impressive. It includes The Articles of Faith, Jesus the Christ, and The House of the Lord, by Elder James E. Talmage of the Council of the Twelve; A Marvelous Work and a Wonder, by Elder LeGrand Richards of the Council of the Twelve; The Miracle of Forgiveness, by President Spencer W. Kimball; The Teachings of the Prophet Joseph Smith and Essentials in Church History, by President Joseph Fielding Smith; Gospel Doctrine, by President Joseph F. Smith.”
No wonder his name came up a lot.
^Holy Cow!!
Airdrie building!! That’s where I first remember going to hear the radio broadcasts of conference! Slides of the GAs and other conference scenes were provided for the illustration of the talks (presumably to avoid people of the 1970s becoming bored with mere audio feed) and on one occasion I was invited to help out, memorably getting one of the slides in upside down and causing no end of entertainment to the watching congregation.