The. Golden Age. Radio. by Jennifer Estabrooks. HOUGHTON MIFFLIN HarcOUrt

Transcription

1 The Golden Age of Radio by Jennifer Estabrooks HOUGHTON MIFFLIN HarcOUrt

2 by Jennifer Estabrooks PHOTOGRAPHY CREDITS: Cover Alamy Images; 1 ClassicStock/Alamy; 2 Photodisc/Getty Images; 3 Getty Images; 4 ClassicStock/Alamy; 5 Hulton Archive/Getty Images; 6 Hulton Archive/Getty Images; 7 Trinity Mirror/Mirrorpix/ Alamy; 9 Hulton Archive/Getty Images; 10 Archive Holdings Inc./Getty Images; 11 Pictorial Press Ltd/Alamy; 12 Getty Images; 13 Sports Illustrated/Getty Images; 14 Genevieve Naylor/Corbis. Copyright by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company All rights reserved. No part of this work may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopying or recording, or by any information storage and retrieval system, without the prior written permission of the copyright owner unless such copying is expressly permitted by federal copyright law. Requests for permission to make copies of any part of the work should be addressed to Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company, Attn: Contracts, Copyrights, and Licensing, 9400 South Park Center Loop, Orlando, Florida Printed in the U.S.A. ISBN: XXXX A B C D E F G If you have received these materials as examination copies free of charge, Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company retains title to the materials and they may not be resold. Resale of examination copies is strictly prohibited. Possession of this publication in print format does not entitle users to convert this publication, or any portion of it, into electronic format.

3 Table of Contents Gather Around the Radio Comedy Shows Drama Shows Sound Effects The War of the Worlds News on the Radio Sports on the Radio The Golden Age Ends

4 Families today enjoy watching TV for entertainment. Think about the kinds of things you and your family do at home for entertainment. Do you watch TV together? Perhaps you play video games or computer games. Maybe you watch movies on DVD, on demand, or online. If you could ask your great-grandparents what they did for entertainment when they were your age, there s a good chance they would say, We listened to the radio. 3

5 Gather Around the Radio Seventy years ago, home computers and video games hadn t been invented yet. Televisions were around, but they were expensive and few homes had them. There were no CDs, DVDs, VCRs, DVRs, or MP3s. But almost every home in the United States had a radio. In those days, most Americans gathered around their radios in the evening. They listened to comedy shows and dramas, as well as news and sports. This period from roughly the 1930s to the 1950s is often called the Golden Age of Radio. Radio was the main source for entertainment, news, and sports. 4

6 Comedy Shows Comedy programs were very popular on the radio. Most comedies were recorded in front of a live studio audience, and Audiences reacted with audiences at home laughed laughter to the comedy right along. of Abbott and Costello. Many old time comedians got their start on radio. Some comedians, such as Bud Abbott and Lou Costello, became well-known for certain comedy acts. Abbott and Costello are remembered for their classic skit Who s on First? in which the two start conferring about the funny names of the players on a baseball team. Other comedians, such as Mel Blanc, became wellknown for being able to make funny-sounding voices. While Blanc was most famous as the voice of Bugs Bunny and many other cartoon characters, he started his career in radio. 5

7 Bud Collyer played Superman in The Adventures of Superman radio show. Drama Shows A type of program called a serial was a drama that continued a storyline from episode to episode. Radio listeners sometimes scheduled their week around a favorite show. One popular serial was The Adventures of Superman. It aired Monday through Friday. Each fifteen-minute episode ended right in the middle of an exciting part. What will happen now? the narrator would say while organ music played in the background. Don t miss tomorrow s thrill-packed episode! 6

8 Sound Effects Unlike comedy shows, radio dramas were recorded in a studio without a live audience. Dramas had to rely entirely on sound to help audiences at home imagine what was going on. Some shows had crews to create sound effects in the studio. For a western, the sound of a galloping horse could be conveyed by someone pounding coconut shells on a piece of wood. The sound of a campfire might actually be someone scrunching sheets of plastic. Real sounds, such as animal noises, could be recorded outside. These sounds would then be added to a show to make it more realistic. Sound effects crews worked hard to make a show come to life. 7

9 The War of the Worlds Once, a show became a little too realistic. The Mercury Theatre produced radio dramas based on famous books. On October 30, 1938, the Mercury players performed a version of the book The War of the Worlds, which is about aliens from Mars invading Earth. After a brief introduction, the show began with an actor pretending to be a radio announcer. The announcer gave a weather report and then introduced an orchestra that played music. It seemed like an ordinary radio broadcast. But then the music was interrupted with a fake news report about a strange, luminous object that supposedly had crashed on a farm in New Jersey. A daring reporter at the scene began describing the alien creatures that came out of the object. 8

10 People across America who tuned into the Mercury Theatre show after it had already begun were confused and alarmed. They believed they were hearing an actual news account of a real alien invasion. Orson Welles talking to reporters the day after his radio broadcast caused a panic. 9

11 News on the Radio People often first learned about real news events on the radio. The Hindenburg was a The Hindenburg disaster was a major news event in large airship similar to a blimp. On May 6, 1937, the Hindenburg was flying to Lakehurst, New Jersey. A reporter, Herb Morrison, was covering the event for a radio station. As the ship approached its landing spot, it suddenly exploded. It burst into flames, it burst into flames! Morrison shouted into his microphone. Within minutes the Hindenburg had been destroyed. Americans listened to the details of the indescribable disaster on the radio. It became one of the most famous radio broadcasts of all time. 10

12 A few years later, on December 7, 1941, football fans on the east coast were listening to a radio broadcast of a game. A news announcer broke into the game. We interrupt this broadcast to bring you this important bulletin, he began. A foreign nation had just attacked the U. S. naval base at Pearl Harbor in Hawaii. The next day, Americans across the country gathered around their radios to hear President Franklin D. Roosevelt address Congress. Yesterday, December 7, 1941, a date which will live in infamy, the President said gravely, the United States of America was suddenly and deliberately attacked. In his speech, President Roosevelt asked that Congress declare war on Japan. The U.S. was about to enter World War II. 11

13 Sports on the Radio Without television or the Internet, the radio was the only way for most people to follow live sporting events. In 1938, a boxing match was held between American Joe With that victory, Louis and German Max Joe Louis became a Schmeling. The winner national hero. would be the world s heavyweight champion. Clem McCarthy, a scratchy-voiced announcer, described the match on the radio. In just over two minutes, Louis had knocked out Schmeling. A record 70 million listeners heard McCarthy declare in awe, The fight is over! Max Schmeling is beaten in one round! 12

14 Later that same year, 40,000 fans jammed into a racetrack in Maryland to watch a horse race between Seabiscuit and War Admiral. About 40 million more tuned in on the radio. Once again, Clem McCarthy was the announcer. When Seabiscuit beat War Admiral in a very surprising victory, the crowd started to roar. In the radio broadcast, McCarthy famously shouted in disbelief, Seabiscuit is the winner And you never saw such a wild crowd! The 1938 race between Seabiscuit and War Admiral has been called the greatest horse race ever. 13

15 The Golden Age Ends By the 1950s, televisions were becoming more common in people s living rooms. Before long, television became the main way people got entertainment, news, and sports. The popularity of radio began to fade. Today, you can still listen to every one of the radio broadcasts mentioned in this book. But now they are found online on your computer. When you listen to them, close your eyes and relive the extraordinary Golden Age of Radio. 14

16 Responding TARGET VOCABULARY Word Builder Make a word web around the word extraordinary. What synonyms do you know for the word? Copy and complete the word web below. surprising extraordinary Write About It Text to World Think of an important event happening in the news right now. Write a paragraph as if you are a radio announcer describing the event. Use a word from the Word Builder in your writing. 15

17 TARGET VOCABULARY alarmed awe conferring convey daring extraordinary fade indescribable luminous reacted TARGET STRATEGY Infer/Predict Use text clues to figure out what isn t directly stated by the author. Which word tells how you might feel if you heard the first part of this word going off? 16

18 Level: R DRA: 40 Social Studies Strategy: Infer/Predict Word Count: 1, Build Vocabulary Houghton Mifflin Online Leveled Books