Pelé: Athlete and Ambassador, 1940 – 2022
Posted by: Matthew Barton
Matt Barton, via the rich audio history of the radio show "Sports Byline U.S.A.," looks back and the remarkable career of the immortal Pele.
Posted in: Radio, Recorded Sound, Sports
Category: Radio
Captain Hugh Mulzac and the SS Booker T. Washington
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
Arch Oboler’s Plays for Americans
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
Buck Canel–The Voice of Beisbol, Boxeo and FDR
Posted by: Matthew Barton
“…millions this week listened to Buck Canel, a swashbuckling New Yorker, as he broadcast his 27th World Series in Spanish” –Robert H. Boyle, Sports Illustrated, October 14, 1963. “No se vayan que esto se pone bueno!” (“Don’t go away, this is getting good!”) –Buck Canel, during many, many baseball broadcasts Sportscaster Buck Canel’s voice …
Posted in: NBC Radio Collection, Radio, Sports, Uncategorized
Christmas on the Radio
Posted by: Matthew Barton
Every year, for nearly two months, radio stations fill the air with great Christmas music from what seems to be a bottomless well of recordings. It’s an eclectic mix that draws on songs from the 1930s to the present, but the sounds of Christmas on the radio once went far beyond this. In the 1930s …
Posted in: Christmas, NBC Television Collection, Radio, Recorded Sound Research Center, World War II
Tuning in the March on Washington
Posted by: Matthew Barton
Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.’s “I Have a Dream” speech has been seen and heard countless times since he gave it on August 28, 1963 at the climax of the March on Washington, and a review of the radio coverage of it, including the prelude and aftermath can bring us closer to the whole experience of that day in its many parts, and maybe even to grasp the feelings of the marchers themselves.
Posted in: Civil Rights, National Audio-Visual Conservation Center, Radio, Recorded Sound, Recorded Sound Research Center
VE Day: This Is Not A Drill
Posted by: Matthew Barton
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 simultaneously from Washington, DC and London, England, President Harry S. Truman …
Posted in: CBS Radio, Radio, Recorded Sound, Recorded Sound Research Center
VE Day: Take One
Posted by: Matthew Barton
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 in Washington, DC, when the Library reopens it’s doors. CBS’s coverage of …
Posted in: CBS Radio, Radio, Recorded Sound Research Center
Arch Oboler and His Bathyspheres
Posted by: Matthew Barton
“Arch Oboler, a restlessly intelligent man…utilized two of radio’s great strengths: the first in the mind’s innate obedience, its willingness to try to see whatever someone suggests it see, no matter how absurd: the second is the fact that fear and horror are blinding emotions that knock our adult pins from beneath us and …
Posted in: NBC Radio Collection, Radio, Recorded Sound