Contains sound recordings, original music manuscripts and published sheet music, handwritten notes, correspondence, business records, photographs, scrapbooks, newsclippings, concert programs, posters, pamphlets, books and other ephemera. See online finding aid for list of radio broadcast material.
The Milo Ryan / CBS Radio News Phonoarchive is a unique audio time capsule that documents many historic 20th century events. It consists of sound recordings of CBS Radio News programs, public affairs shows, actualities, speeches, interviews, wartime dramas, daily World War II news updates. The recordings capture groundbreaking broadcasts by Edward R. Murrow and his "Boys": William L. Shirer, Eric Sevareid, Tom Grandin, Larry LeSueur, Charles Collingwood, Howard K. Smith, Winston Burdett, Bill Downs, Mary Marvin Breckinridge, Cecil Brown, and Richard C. Hottelet. The collection also includes recordings of programs and speeches made by public figures during and beyond WW II, including Churchill, Eisenhower, Einstein, Hitler, and JFK. As Dr. Donald Godfrey writes in his 1973 article "History Held a Microphone": "There are twenty-two hundred and twenty-seven newscasts. All but a handful originating from CBS. Their newscasts represent every weekday without a miss, from September 7, 1939, with the Germans entering Poland, to April 2, 1945, with the allies entering Germany.... Tapes contain examples of special events coverage: the Japanese attack of Pearl Harbor, the bombing of Japan, landings in North Africa, the 13 Normandy Invasion, the World Security Conference, April, 1945, the function of the American and Russian Armies, April, 1945, the death and funeral of FDR, and miles of tape on V. E. and V.J. days. Elmer Davis' daily five minute reports are represented in entirety from his debut, September 16, 1939, to February 13, 1941, and occasionally to July 9, 1943. H. V. Kaltenbom edits the news, complete from August 27, 1939, until January 26, 1940, and sporadically thereafter. Our library includes 21 speeches by Winston Churchill, representing 12 hours of this master of language. There are 51 talks by President Roosevelt totaling 24 continuous hours." A detailed description of most of the recordings in the Phonoarchive is available in Milo Ryan's book History in Sound (UW Press).
Content types:
Performed music and Spoken word
Formats:
Acetate open reel tape, Digital audio file (including MP3, WAV, AIFF, etc.), Photographic print, and Text document
Contains several types of records documenting the activities of WNYC, including administrative files, 1948-1981, public relations files, 1967-1983, publications, 1938-1984, awards and plaques, 1949-1979, LaGuardia broadcasts, 1944-1945, and six phonodisks and scrapbooks, 1926-1971.
Several individual collections that include scripts, sound recordings, scrapbooks, special program announcements, annual reports and a subject file that contains general correspondence, reports, studies, publications, personnel files and legal documents.
Repository/Collector:
University Archives, University of Illinois, Urbana-Champaign
The WPA Radio Scripts consist of final drafts of radio plays and other texts produced by the Federal Theatre of the Air. Most scripts are from either the New York or Los Angeles offices of the Federal Theatre Project. In some instances copies of scripts for the same program but from different jurisdictions are included in the same series. Notable programs represented in the collection include adaptations of the plays of Henrik Ibsen and Oscar Wilde, operettas by Gilbert & Sullivan, a series called A CAPELLA IN BRONZE featuring the WPA Negro Radio Chorus and focusing on stories of particular interest to African-Americans, adaptations of books such as Dickens' PICKWICK PAPERS and plays such as Tolstoy's REDEMPTION, Goldsmith's SHE STOOPS TO CONQUER and Molière's TARTUFFE. A 1939 series celebrating Jazz entitled THE STORY OF SWING devoted episodes to Duke Ellington, Benny Goodman, and the Dorsey Brothers. TURNING POINTS IN FAMOUS LIVES dramatized key moments in the lives of John Paul Jones, Sarah Bernhardt, Louis Pasteur, Isaac Newton, Billy the Kid, Joseph Stalin, and others. THE LIVING NEWSPAPER, adapted from a concurrent Federal Theatre Project stage series, dramatized contemporary problems facing listeners in daily life.
Content types:
Other
Extent:
73 boxes
Repository/Collector:
New York Public Library for the Performing Arts, Dorothy and Lewis B. Cullman Center
Contains radio scripts designed to sway public opinion during World War II and the post World War II era, including Our Secret Weapon with Rex Stout as the "lie detective" debunking Axis propaganda, Freedom House Forum and Pride and Prejudice, a forum for representatives of different races and religions to discuss issues of prejudice.
Repository/Collector:
Princeton University Libraries, Rare Books and Special Collections