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Posted by: Matthew Barton
Even if you have been to the Recorded Sound Research Center of the Library of Congress in person, most of you never met Larry Miller, a longtime staff member of the section who died suddenly on September 26th. But if you have used the Library’s recorded sound holdings in some way, whether as a researcher …
Posted in: Jukebox, National Audio-Visual Conservation Center, Recorded Sound
Posted by: Matthew Barton
“We took that old art off of radio and mashed it up with Stan Freberg, Mad Magazine, Bob Newhart, Bob & Ray and Sergeant Pepper.” – Philip Proctor “We skated just ahead of the needle on our first LPs and escaped just in the nick of time, diving through the hole in the center of …
Posted in: Comedy, National Recording Registry
Posted by: Matthew Barton
Every one of us yearns to be heard and appreciated. Yet at the same time, we are surrounded by a wondrous realm of vibrations that are rarely attended to, let alone valued. Listening can open the portal between these inner and outer worlds.—Jim Metzner For the past half century, Jim Metzner has taken the pulse …
Posted in: Uncategorized
Posted by: Matthew Barton
On May 24th, 1922, President Warren G. Harding spoke into a recording horn prepared for him at the White House. He recreated a speech he had given a year and a day earlier at a memorial ceremony held at Pier 4 on the Hoboken, NJ waterfront, where the remains of 5,212 Americans killed in World …
Posted in: Uncategorized
Posted by: Matthew Barton
This post originally appeared on this blog in May of 2020. As detailed in the previous blog post, VE Day – Take One, Monday, May 7, 1945, was a day of confusion and restrained celebration for CBS Radio and the news media in general. Tuesday, May 8, however, brought clarity and all out jubilation. Speaking …
Posted in: Recorded Sound, World War II
Posted by: Matthew Barton
The following post originally appeared on this blog in May of 2020. The Columbia Broadcasting System (CBS) and other radio networks all covered the last hours of World War II in Europe in depth, and these recordings are preserved in the Library of Congress, where they are available for listening in the Recorded Sound Research Center …
Posted in: Recorded Sound, World War II
Posted by: Matthew Barton
The National Broadcasting Company (NBC) Collection is the largest and most used collection in the holdings of the Recorded Sound Section of the Library of Congress. In it are more than 40,000 hours of NBC radio broadcasting programs beginning in 1934, nearly all of it aimed at audiences in the United States. But a small, …
Posted in: NBC Radio Collection, Recorded Sound
Posted by: Matthew Barton
This 15-minute broadcast from January 2, 1943 comes from the Office of War Information (OWI) Collection at the Library of Congress, and reflects a unique and vital chapter of World War II. It features Captain Hugh Mulzac and members of the integrated crew of the “Liberty Ship,” he captained, the SS Booker T. Washington. Though …
Posted in: Radio
Posted by: Matthew Barton
This blog post was written by Matt Barton, curator of the Recorded Sound Section. At the time of the United States’s entry into World War II, Arch Oboler was one of a handful of radio writers whose popularity rivaled that of the medium’s star performers. Although he was best known for horror programs like the …
Posted in: NBC Radio Collection, Radio, World War II