NYPR History Notes

NYPR Archives & Preservation
March 26, 2021 - Volume 20 Issue 13

"WNYC, in the city where more than seven million people live in peace and enjoy the benefits of democracy."

Edition # 963

BROADCAST ON WNYC TODAY IN:

1925: Seymour Litvak (PS 174) and Anna Glick (PS 62) read their award-earning essays on "The Evils and Perils of Jay Walking." The two public school students were given silver cups for 'best essays' on the topic by Mayor Hylan a few days earlier.

1942: Everett R. Clinchy, President of the National Council of Christians and Jews, talks about freedom of religion. He says, "When civilization is built upon technology and ignores the dignity of man and rejects responsibility to God, then Nazism is the logical result." Clinchy's talk is part of the Our Stake in the War series.

1951: Korea veteran Corporal Angel Gomez inaugurates the non-stop air service between New York and Puerto Rico. The San Juan, Puerto Rico dedication ceremonies were for three planes. Gomez, a triple-amputee, makes his speech via direct line from Washington, D.C. Captain Eddie Rickenbacker, President of Eastern Airlines and a veteran of World War I and II, also speaks.

1968: Ted Mann of Circle in the Square Theater along with John W. Finn and Julien Walker talk with Richard Pyatt on this edition of Seminars in Theater.

1972: Regina Resnik talks about her career and opera with Lorenzo Alvary for this edition of Opera Topics.

Back in the Day, March 26, 1934

Frances Foley Gannon launches 29 years of consumer talks on food preparation and prices on WNYC

As the Deputy Commissioner for the Department of Public Markets, Division of Consumers' Services, Gannon routinely greets her audience with an energetic, "Good Morning, Housewives!" In 1954 she tells the Staten Island Advance that her greatest accomplishment at WNYC was to teach wholesalers, retailers, and housewives to refrigerate eggs. (Photo courtesy of the New York City Municipal Archives).

Back in the Day, March 26, 1957

WNYC Marks the 800th Edition of The Reader's Alamanc

Billed as 'the oldest book program on radio,' The Reader's Almanac has been visited by distinguished literary figures such as John Dos Passos, Robert Penn Warren, Margaret Halsey, Archibald MacLeish, Budd Schulberg, and Marianne Moore. Hosted by Warren Bower since its inception in 1938, the Peabody-awarded program was the archetype for the many public radio book shows to follow.

Warren Bower, host of The Reader's Almanac in March 1960. (Courtesy of New York University Archives, NYU Libraries)

WNYC first day of broadcast, July 8, 1924 (Municipal Archives Collection)

Broadcast on WQXR Today in:

1962: Actress Gladys Cooper talks with Duncan MacDonald on The Observation Point.

1974: Distinguished tenor George Shirley discusses the history of African-Americans and opera on Afro-Americans and Classical Music.

96+ Years Young!

In 3 years WNYC will mark its centennial. In this space we'll be linking to various historical WNYC champions, broadcasts and milestones celebrating nearly a century on the air in the public interest.This week: New York City Makes the Case for Public Broadcasting in 1932.

Women's History Month is Now!

Explorer Dentist Worries Big Sugar
and
Takes Great Snaps

Portrait of Mary Ann Sundown of Scammon Bay, Alaska by L. M. Waugh, D.D.S. (National Museum of the American Indian, Smithsonian Institution, Cat# L02270)

Gone but not forgotten. The list of WNYC and WQXR past productions finding new life on the web continues to grow!

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Interested in revisiting some of the 962 previous issues of The New York Public Radio History Notes? We've put up links for editions since June 2013. See: History Notes.