Reliving The

Golden Age Of Radio

By Jan Howard

A cathedral radio from bygone days brought a wave of nostalgia October 10 to a program about the golden age of radio. It brought to mind memories of families gathered around the radio to listen to Amos and Andy, The Lone Ranger, and comedians Fred Allen and Jack Benny, or news of presidential elections or national crises, such as the United States entry into World War II.

The golden age of radio, from the first broadcast of election day results in 1920 to the last dramatic show presented in 1962, was the highlight of a program on the history of radio at the C.H. Booth Library, sponsored by the Newtown Historical Society.

David Goldin of Newtown took program attendees on an audio stroll down memory lane through recordings of radio broadcasts from the election results of the Harding/Cox election of 1920 to the dramatic program Suspense on September 30, 1962.

A longtime collector of radio programs and radios, Mr Goldin turned his hobby into a full-time business in 1977, selling duplicate recordings of the 61,160 old radio programs he eventually acquired, one of the largest collections in the country. Radio Yesteryear, which was headquartered in Sandy Hook, grew to have a mailing list of 150,000 enthusiasts before Mr Goldin sold it to Audio Book Club in 1998. Mr Goldin also produced CD recordings of old shows, and won a Grammy Award in 1981.

“Radio is one of my favorite topics,” Mr Goldin told the audience.

Mr Goldin’s presentation covered the history of radio from Guglielmo Marconi’s invention of the radio in 1895 to the emergence of rock ‘n roll. He described the use of radio during emergencies, such as the sinking of the Titanic, and the development of the network system. His talk was highlighted by recordings of excerpts of various radio programs through the use of a cathedral radio, which was made by the Brunswick Company in 1931 and adapted to play tapes.

Radio, Mr Goldin said, is a special medium. “It lurks behind the eyeballs. It’s internalized. It’s the theater of the mind.” You have to look with your mind and not your eyes, he said.

The creaking Inner Sanctum door, well remembered by many in attendance, emanated from the cathedral radio, so named because of the shape of the top of it.

 “I’ll let my radio talk about radio,” he said as he played a 1965 advertisement of two businessmen talking about radio and why they should advertise on it. It is a special medium, Mr Goldin said, because it stretches the imagination.

 Marconi’s invention of the radio evolved into telegraph messages without wires, and the first transAtlantic transmission took place in 1901, sending only the letter S. In 1936 Marconi sent a short-wave transmission from Europe to America in which he took personal responsibility for this rather remarkable feat, Mr Goldin said.

In 1909, lives were saved by radio transmissions following a ship collision between the SS Florida and SS Republic. As a result, it was later required that two radio operators be on every ship. In 1912, a distress signal was sent on a Marconi radio that brought rescue ships to the aid of survivors of the Titanic.

The purpose of radio is communication, Mr Goldin said. Broadcasting on the other hand is primarily to entertain. In 1910, an experimental broadcast of music was transmitted in France from the Eiffel Tower.

 The development of an instrument to bring entertainment, music, and news into a home was regarded as an impossible dream, Mr Goldin said. Several inventions led to radio becoming more practical, and it eventually became a highly competitive area. Once radios were widely available, no other media has so actively united people of all nations, he noted.

 The first live broadcast is credited to KDKA in East Pittsburgh, Penn., on November 2, 1920, when it reported the election results in the presidential election that pitted Republican presidential candidate Warren J. Harding against Democrat James Cox.

There is no record of early broadcasts, Mr Goldin said, because they consisted mostly of lectures, music, farm reports, and political speeches. “The novelty was the box in the house that brought people together.”

By 1922, when the second professional broadcast took place, the United States was going radio happy, Mr Goldin said. There were so many new stations that the Federal Radio Commission was created.

One of the most famous broadcasts of 1922 was of comedian Ed Wynn, who was a famous stage comedian before radio and movies. Although he usually did physical humor, Mr Wynn quickly learned the difference in performing for the ear instead of the eye, of presenting a mental picture that would make the audience participate and use imagination. He also formed the first studio audience by gathering together everyone in the studio, Mr Goldin said.

In 1926 network radio began. A radio station, Mr Goldin explained, is a physical location. There is always something on it. But a network supplies programs. The station can carry the network program or its own. The network can afford more expensive performers, he noted.

In 1926 saw the first broadcast of the Amos and Andy show, with two white men playing the roles of Black Americans. It ran until 1960, a record 34 years. “It was a very funny show,” Mr Goldin said.

By 1938 radio was the most popular home entertainment. “The thing to do was listen to the radio,” he said.

That was the year of Orson Welles’ War of the Worlds, no doubt the most famous and controversial of all radio programs. Another controversial program was the Chase & Sanborn Hour’s coast-to-coast broadcast on December 12, 1937, of a satire of the Bible story of Adam and Eve, with Mae West as Eve and Don Ameche as Adam, having a conversation about leaving the Garden of Eden. The end result of the broadcast was that Mae West was banned from ABC.

The most recognized sound effect from radio was Fibber McGee’s closet, Mr Goldin said. The program ran from 1935 to 1955. “The closet was not heard on each program,” he noted, but everyone had a Fibber McGee closet.

The second most recognizable sound effect was the marching feet, police whistle, and gunfire from Gangbusters. “The saying ‘coming on like gangbusters’ came about as a result of these sound effects,” Mr Goldin said. The other most recognizable sound effect was the creaking door of Inner Sanctum.

On December 7, 1941, in addition to President Roosevelt’s speech about the attack on Pearl Harbor and the country’s entry into World War II, the radio also interrupted a religious program for a transmission from KGU in Honolulu that gave an on-the-spot description of the attack. At that time the battle had been raging for three hours. “It’s a real war,” the commentator said from the roof of a building in Honolulu.

In 1943, it took 836 employees to put on a 29½ minute program. There were four networks with thousands of stations across the country.

“Radio kept a lot of people employed because a lot of people were listening,” Mr Goldin said.

Listeners had the opportunity to hear some of the big band sounds of Glenn Miller and Tommy Dorsey through remotes originating from nightclubs, he said. These began in the 1920s and continued to the 1970s.

The last dramatic show broadcast was Suspense, produced on September 30, 1962, by CBS.

The golden age of radio lasted over 42 years, Mr Goldin said. But radio is far from dead, he added. There are over 10,000 radio stations today.

 While families may no longer group around the radio to listen to a drama or comedian, the radio still provides us with entertainment and information.