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Archive: June 2018 (1 Post)

A man playing a guitar and singing to a close crowd of a dozen or so men and women

Alistair Cooke: Radio and TV Icon, Hidden Folklorist

Posted by: Stephen Winick

This article about the broadcaster, journalist, and writer Alistair Cooke is part of a series called "Hidden Folklorists," which examines the folklore work of surprising people, including people better known for other pursuits. It mainly details his work on the 12-part 1938 BBC radio series "I Hear America Singing," which was the first time Library of Congress field recordings were used on the radio. It also discusses Cooke's involvement in the Library's recordings of Jelly Roll Morton, and presents the first recordings of his voice, made for the purposes of a dialect study in 1934.