As Mike Mashon mentioned in his recent blog post, Tales of the Unexpected, you never know what you’ll find in the Library’s collections. While the Library has great interviews of musicians, as found in the Joe Smith Collection, the Studs Terkel Collection contains interviews of musicians and performers that are particularly fascinating and revealing. Since …
I recently returned from visiting Nashville, Tennessee, and while there visited the Ryman Auditorium. Being a fan of country music, I knew the Ryman was called “the Mother Church of Country Music,” and was the home for many years of the radio program The Grand Ole Opry, but I was very surprised to learn about …
The following is a guest post by Daniel Blazek, Recorded Sound Technician, National Audio-Visual Conservation Center The Tonight Show has become such a cultural institution in America that it is hard to imagine that early episodes were lost, as so many early television programs on tape were erased when subsequent broadcasts were taped over …
Imagine looking page by page at magazines devoted to radio, recorded sound, film, and television that previously could only be viewed by a visit to a library or an archive. In the past few years, we’ve been working with the Library’s Document Scan Center to digitize around 1 million pages of public domain media-related periodicals …
Fans may have difficulty imagining Little Richard, the self-professed “King of Rock and Roll” as a struggling newcomer, but in a recording acquired last year Richard registers his surprise at first hearing his hit “Tutti Frutti” on the radio while lying in bed one night, (at about 8 minutes 50 seconds into the interview). …
Even during the coldest and darkest days of winter, baseball fans look forward to February, when a glimmer of hope appears as pitchers and catchers report to Spring training. Baseball fans throughout the world start dreaming of a World Series championship and everyone knows The Void will soon be over. The Recorded Sound Section’s collection …