"Because ignorance of your culture is considered uncool"
As long as we’re in dire need of some distractions (or at least alternatives), here’s a trip back to Los Angeles on January 9, 1959, via KFWB and disc jockey Elliot Field. Not quite Top-40, KFWB’s slogan was “full color radio”. But what it was, was a wild stew of...
Change the names and the circumstances and this could just as easily be almost any recent year as it was this day in 1957. The Middle East; the perennial powder-keg, the threatened flashpoint where the world would be plunged into chaos. The divider between East and West. On this day...
1956 seems so deep in the distant past that to many, any discussion of it would be purely in the abstract. But 1956 was a pivotal year on many levels, and what went on during that year had repercussions for decades to come. 1956 was an election year; Eisenhower was...
Boston Symphony In Rehearsal – Charles Munch, Conductor – Alexander Tcherepnin, Piano – June 9, 1951 – Gordon Skene Sound Collection – Another historic rehearsal from the weekly series The Boston Symphony in Rehearsal from NBC Radio. Originally broadcast June 9, 1951, this broadcast features the contemporary Russian-American composer Alexander...
New Years Eve 1957: Times Square. 1957, like every other year, a celebration and a mass of people, converging on Times Square in New York City – waiting for the ball to drop and usher in 1958. Another year and another shot at happiness. With 750,000 people cheering, throwing confetti...
December 30,1955 – In 1955, as in 2020, the day before New Year‘s Eve fell on a Friday – the weekend was set aside for celebrating and the ever-present singing of Auld lang Syne. But Friday was the last day of the 5-day-a-week news programs – and this Friday in...
Since we’re rapidly (and thankfully) approaching the end of 2020, the somewhat pained looks back at the year start now. But rather than mull over 2020 here (since everyone else will do a better job anyway), today we’re going to start with the goings-on that shaped 1958. Oddly, a year...
What began during World War 2 as a holiday ritual, continued on for decades as members of the Hollywood contingent boarded planes and headed off to Army camps to spend Christmas with the troops. In 1952 it was Korea. And for 17 days, from Christmas to New Years, the USO...
December 15, 1950 – Edward R. Murrow – Hear It Now – CBS Radio – Gordon Skene Sound Collection – December 15, 1950 – It was all about Korea, this December day in 1950. What was initially described as a “police action” was rapidly spiraling out of control and there...
Frank Sinatra turns 105 today. The singer who became so identified with the Big Band era of the 1940s, and who branched out to become one of the Entertainment world’s great icons of the 20th century, was born on this December 12th in 1915. There is very little...
Gordon Skene, two-time Grammy Nominee and archivist runs The Gordon Skene Sound Archive and this website, which is dedicated to preserving and encouraging an interest in history and historic news, events, and cultural aspects of our society. Past Daily is the only place on the Internet where you can hear a Nixon speech, listen to an interview with John Cassavettes or play a broadcast of Charles Munch rehearsing the Boston Symphony in 1950, all in the same place. It's living history and it's timeless.
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