File talk:Alleged Grover Cleveland voice.wav

Recording is not authentic

It may be of no use to point this out, but I assumed that it would be good to say that this is not Grover Cleveland. The transcript of the original speech can be found at https://en.wikisource.org/wiki/Cross_of_Gold_Speech. At one point during the speech, Bryan's words are the same (or almost exactly the same) as those spoken by "Cleveland" in this recording. Therefore, it cannot be Cleveland.

It also cannot be Bryan. It is also important to point out that, if it was of either Cleveland or Bryan, "Hail to the Chief" would not have been playing, as neither was President when this "disputed" recording was made. And, last but not least, phonographs were almost incapable of capturing live sound, and the notion that this could have been either of Cleveland on his front porch or Bryan at the Democratic Convention is thus ridiculous. Almost all recordings were made in studios or inside the speaker's home (in the case of personal recordings); recording sounds live was almost impossible.

This recording must have been made in a studio, then. And there are multiple indicators of this. Upon closer examination, only a few people appear to be cheering, suggesting that actors were paid to do it. And the cheering audience and music would only have been audible on the recording if they had been standing behind the horn--suggesting this was a reenactment of Bryan's speech done in a studio.

In short, it is neither of Cleveland in 1892 nor Bryan in 1896. I feel reluctant to point this out, but it is so obviously a "fake" that I don't think it even deserves to have its status "disputed." There are many signs that this is fake, and no signs that it could be real. We must use our best judgement and assume it is the former. R23$94ACQ3R (talk) 19:28, 22 January 2023 (UTC)

By the way, "Hail to the Chief" cannot be heard on this recording, but it can on other versions of it. Sorry for confusion. I also don't think this file deserves to be deleted: an effort should be made to find out what artist made this recording, and to retitle it accordingly to "[] reading Bryan's Cross of Gold Speech." R23$94ACQ3R (talk) 19:35, 22 January 2023 (UTC)