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Tuning in to the ‘theater of the mind’

Library program explores the history of radio shows

WARREN — The Warren Public Library presented an overview of some of the earliest shows and stars from the early years of radio in a Zoom presentation on Thursday.

The program, hosted live by Steve Darnall from Chicago, included sound clips and stories from radio’s earliest years, including Jack Benny, Bob Hope, “Amos N’ Andy” and “The Shadow.”

Darnall demonstrated how early radio used sound, music and voices to create “pictures,” which were often frightening or mysterious. He explained that, at the time, radio provided a means to transform the 48 states into a national listening community.

“Radio entered what we call the ‘Golden Age.’ For the first time, we had a listening experience we could share. Someone could stand at a microphone in Chicago and could be heard all the way out in Warren, and at the same time they were hearing it in Warren, it was heard in Poughkeepsie, New York, and in Roanoke, Virginia and in Beaumont, Louisiana. For the first time, you had something in common with the people in Roanoke and Poughkeepsie and Beaumont,” Darnall said.

He said he developed his fascination with both American history and popular culture at an early age. He is the publisher of “Nostalgia Digest” and hosts a radio program, “Those Were the Days.”

He has had the chance to speak to thousands of radio fans nationwide in seven different one-hour presentations, each dedicated to different aspects of the “Golden Age” of radio. The program he presented at the Warren Public Library was “A Beginner’s Guide to the Golden Age of Radio.”

Darnall’s interest in early radio began at age 12 when his father tuned in to the program “Those Were the Days.” After hearing Fibber McGee and Molly, his love of the subject matter eventually led to his own podcast, radio program, and written and published information about early radio.

Program attendee Donald Morningstar of Braceville grew up in Saxton, Pa., a small rural mining town.

“We only had two radio stations, and there was nothing for kids to do. I listened to ‘Amos N’ Andy’, Roy Rogers and Dale Evens on the radio. You had to keep your hands on the back of the radio, which acted like an antenna. That was the only way to hear the show,” he said.

Darnall explained how “Amos N’ Andy” became one of radio’s first major success stories. He said, “It involved audiences seeing something in the mind’s eye that was not there. In this case, it was about two African American gentlemen who had left their homes in the deep South to seek their fortune in the big city. A lot of people tuned in to hear them but not all of those people who tuned in were aware that these African American characters were being played by white actors. But that is only part of the story. This show had a cultural reach.”

Writer George Bernard Shaw visited the United States in the 1930s and was asked for his impressions of it. He said that he would never forget a few things about America: the Rocky Mountains, Niagara Falls and “Amos N Andy.”

“Some isolated towns could now hear the Metropolitan Opera perform,” Darnall said. “Radio could use sound to take us to a whole new reality.”

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