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Category: Recorded Sound

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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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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 …

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.

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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 …

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Margaret Rupli, NBC War Correspondent

Posted by: Karen Fishman

This blog post was written by Matt Barton, curator of the Recorded Sound Section. Margaret Rupli (also known as Margaret Rupli Woodward, 1910 – 2012), a native of Washington, DC, had a long and distinguished career in public service. Her career as a war correspondent for NBC radio was much shorter, lasting only from January …

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 …