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Archive: 2020 (39 Posts)

A view looking past a digital display screen towards the doors of an indoor theater, with

Bob and Ray

Posted by: Karen Fishman

This post was written by Matt Barton, curator, Recorded Sound Section. Born in the early 1920s, Bob Elliot (1923-2016) and Ray Goulding (1922 – 1990), better known as “Bob and Ray,” never knew a world without radio, and reveled in the medium from early childhood. They became professional announcers while still in their teens, eventually …

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The Guiding Light

Posted by: Karen Fishman

This blog post was written by Matt Barton, curator of the Recorded Sound Section. On September 18, 2009, The Guiding Light ended a television run that began June 30, 1952, and a broadcast history that began on radio on January 25, 1937.  The show’s run covered 72 Thanksgivings in all, but as we’ll see, the …

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Rex Stout on the Air

Posted by: Karen Fishman

This blog post was written by Matt Barton, curator of the Recorded Sound Section. Rex Stout (1886-1975) remains well known as the creator of Nero Wolfe, the blunt, erudite and mostly housebound detective with a passion for orchids and fine food. Stout wrote thirty-three novels and forty-one novellas from 1934 to 1975 detailing the exploits …

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This is a Mark Goodson-Bill Todman Production

Posted by: Karen Fishman

This blog post was written by Andrea Leigh, head of the Moving Image Processing Unit. As popular game show host Bob Barker once quipped, “We play games at home, we play games at parties, we go to clubs and play games. Americans love games.”  Americans began listening to game shows on the radio and that excitement …

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Tuning in the March on Washington

Posted by: Karen Fishman

This blog post was written by Matt Barton, curator of the Recorded Sound Section. For decades, the “March on Washington” has been represented in the media and collective memory chiefly by Reverend Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.’s “I Have a Dream” speech, which has been seen and heard an incalculable number of times since he …

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Sousa and the Talking Machine

Posted by: Karen Fishman

This blog post was written by David Sager, research assistant at the Recorded Sound Research Center. John Philip Sousa (1854-1932), the American composer and bandleader, who was known as “The March King,” was a profoundly talented and accomplished man. His musical compositions went beyond marches and included operettas, waltzes, and songs. He also wrote several …

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The Mystery Chef

Posted by: Karen Fishman

This blog post was written by Matt Barton, curator of the Recorded Sound Section. When The Mystery Chef and his eponymous radio program first appeared on NBC’s Boston affiliate WBZ in May of 1930, they were an almost immediate hit, and were soon being heard nationally over the network. The Great Depression was hitting hard …