Audio Antiques

Host Ken Robinson explores the need for adoptive parents.

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Stand-up comedian, actor, singer, dancer, and author Bob Hope was very popular on radio, and had a career that spanned nearly 80 years. In addition to his long running radio show on NBC, Hope starred in 54 feature films. He also became a sensation on television, and hosted the Academy Awards show 19 times.  Hope was born in southeast London, England but arrived in the United States with his family at the age of four, and grew up in Cleveland, Ohio. We have two shows where Bob Hope honors his adopted hometown. A live broadcast from Cleveland in 1946, and a 1948 program where he spotlights the Cleveland Indians, who had just won the World Series.

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Journalist Ken Robinson takes a look at the unique qualities of Saturday nigh in America, and how people spend their time on the sixth day of the week. Plus, A Nurses' Story, Haunted Houses, and DPLA.

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We celebrate legendary American jazz pianist, organist, composer, violinist, singer, and comedic entertainer Thomas Fats Waller. He laid the groundwork for modern jazz piano and some say he paved the way for rock-n-roll. Waller started playing piano at the age of 6, and copyrighted over 400 songs during his career, including Grammy winners "Ain't Misbehavin'" and "Honeysuckle Rose". Waller was a critical and commercial sensation in the United States and Europe. Unfortunately he died from pneumonia at the early age 39 in 1943. We have Fats Waller performing live in 1938, an appearance on the popular Edgar Bergen Show just before his death in 1943, a tribute concert by Eddie Condon in 1944, plus a dramatization of life of Fats Waller on Destination Freedom.

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Crime dramas were very popular during radio's golden age. Most featured tough guy detectives, except one! Candy Matson, was a female private investigator, operating in San Francisco, with a penthouse on Telegraph Hill. The program premiered on NBC Radio in 1949, and was notable for having a veiled gay sidekick serving as Candy's best friend Rembrandt Watson. Candy Matson starred Natalie Masters who went on to play roles on several TV shows in the 1950s and 60s. We're going to hear Candy Matson solve the Symphony of Death, and the Cable Car Cases.

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Here are two episodes from the classic late 1940's radio show Destination Freedom. It begins with The Saga of Blanche K. Bruce, the first African-American United States senator to serve a full term, from 1875 to 1881. Bruce was born into slavery in 1841. The second episode is entitled Shakespeare of Harlem, The Story of Langston Hughes. The poet, novelist, playwright, and social activist was known as the leader of the Harlem Renaissance. You will hear history come alive. 

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It's the final game in 1958 NBA World Championship Series between the Western Division champion St. Louis Hawks and the Eastern Division champion Boston Celtics. The series went six games, the Hawks were ahead 3 games to 2, with the legendary Bill Russell playing for the Celtics even as he was suffering from an ankle injury from Game 3. We pick up the action in the fourth quarter with the radio call by Buddy Blattner. 

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The Mutual Broadcasting System was the last of the 4 radio networks to go in the air during the golden era, and started operating in 1934. It was called Mutual, because unlike the other 3, it was owned by its founding affiliates. Mutual ended operations in 1999, and was best known for shows like The Lone Ranger, Superman and The Shadow, Major League Baseball, and the NFL. In 1936 MBS celebrated catching up with the Big 3, CBS, NBC Red, and NBC Blue which later became ABC, by going nationwide. The network held a coast-to-coast inauguration.

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Albert Einstein the German-born theoretical physicist, is widely acknowledged to be one of the greatest scientists of all time. A champion of civil rights, an outspoken critic of racism, plus a lifetime member of the NAACP, Einstein is best known for developing the theory of relativity, and for the development of quantum mechanics. We'll hear a 1950 dramatization of the of life of Einstein from the radio show Eternal Light, and then a 1940 radio interview of the man himself on NBC. 

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Ken explores the healing power of music therapy, and celebrates Easter Seals. Also, a conversation regarding misconceptions about pit bulls. 

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