The Radio Planet · the interview wing

In Their Own Words

Senators, generals, film stars and the men who built radio — answering questions at the time, not remembering it later.

Almost every interview strand from the period is either lost or still in copyright. What survives in quantity was made by the American government — the Treasury, the Veterans Administration — or deposited with it, like the CBS interview programme Longines Chronoscope, whose prints sit in the National Archives. Those are the recordings on this shelf. Dates and durations are the archives' own; undated items are left undated.

1032

Interviews and talks

Strands

1931–1966

Span

The shelf

Five surviving interview strands

1951–1953 · CBS Television, sponsored by Longines-Wittnauer

Longines Chronoscope

A fifteen-minute interview programme in which two journalists questioned a senator, a general, a cabinet officer or a foreign minister across a small table. The surviving prints were deposited with the United States government and are held by the National Archives, which is why a Cold War interview series survives more completely than almost any entertainment show of the same years.

Earliest surviving transfer: Longines Chronoscope with Lord John Wilmot

252 recordings

1935–1966 · United States Treasury Department

Guest Star

The Treasury's own weekly quarter-hour, distributed free to stations to sell savings bonds. Because it had a government budget and no sponsor to please, it drew the biggest names in the business — singers, bandleaders, film stars and comedians — talking and performing in a studio with the announcer sitting beside them.

Earliest surviving transfer: JBGS 1935-12-07 NBC Studio opening in Hollywood

639 recordings

1940–1941 · Blue Network

Behind the Mike

Graham McNamee's weekly look at how radio was actually made: the sound-effects men, the engineers, the remote crews and the performers, interviewed about their own trade while the medium was still inventing itself.

Earliest surviving transfer: Behind the Mike 40-09-15 001 First Episode

122 recordings

1946–1948 · United States Veterans Administration

Here's To Veterans

A transcription series made for returning servicemen, pairing a guest star with a spoken segment on benefits and re-employment. The talk sections are a plain record of what the country was telling its veterans.

Earliest surviving transfer: "HERE'S TO VETERANS"

3 recordings

1931–1951 · Syndicated and network gossip programmes

The Hollywood Columnists

Scattered surviving broadcasts by the two women who could make or break a career from a microphone: Hedda Hopper and Louella Parsons, reading their columns aloud and interviewing the people they were writing about.

Earliest surviving transfer: Norma Shearer Louella Parsons Flexo Interview REMASTERED

16 recordings

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