"Because ignorance of your culture is considered uncool"
October 15, 1951 – A busy news day. A war in Korea and from Capitol Hill, a call for discussions and a workable solution with the Russians. The looming specter of the Atomic bomb always at the forefront. Meanwhile, President Truman also urged passage of a Universal Military Training law,...
News for this October 13th in 1958 had much to do with the goings-on at The Vatican. The death of Pope Pius XII and the mourning, as well as the first televised coverage of the burial, was big news. On 5 October 1958, at his summer residence Castel Gandolfo, the...
Jo Stafford Time – CBS Radio / Armed Forces Radio Service – 1952 – Gordon Skene Sound Collection – Jo Stafford; a name which may not ring a lot of bells unless you were around in the 1950s, but a name which was synonymous with Popular music before the dawn...
By 1956 it would be pretty safe to say America was headed well into nervous breakdown territory. Everything was on the rise – divorce, alcohol abuse, prescription medications, fear, paranoia and irrevocable change. And it wasn’t being coped with, other than via escape. And those issues were many. We had...
Part One: Part Two: Another historic concert this week. This one from 1958, featuring the BBC Symphony Orchestra, conducted by Sir Malcolm Sargent and featuring the legendary Hungarian pianist Andor Foldes in a program of music by Dmitri Shostakovich, Beethoven and Bartok. Beginning with the first performance outside the Soviet...
WHBQ-Memphis – Wink Martindale – September 1956 – Gordon Skene Sound Collection – It’s hard to imagine 1956 – hard to imagine a time, some sixty-four years ago, when Rock n’ Roll was considered a fad, that it would never last, that it was a gimmick and that you, as...
NBC Radio – Keys To The Capitol – September 14, 1955 – Gordon Skene Sound Collection – If you can, it would be incredible: Become a Patron! In 1955 we were knee-deep in the Red Scare and Communist threat, it influenced just about every aspect of American life – sometimes...
The Beat Generation – Narrated by Sydney Omar – October 1959 – KNX-AM/FM, Los Angeles – Gordon Skene Sound Collection – The Beat Generation – the lightning rod movement that ushered in the 60s, but became closely linked with the growing dissatisfaction of the 50s, the rebellion against the Cold...
Dr. Jonas Salk – in conversation with James Day – Day For Night Program – NET – June 6, 1974 – Gordon Skene Sound Collection – Dr. Jonas Salk – if you are a certain age, that name fills you with memories of quarantines, lockdowns, iron-lungs, long-term paralysis and fear...
NBC Radio – Meet The Press – Guest: Dr. Leonard Scheele – June 5, 1955 – Gordon Skene Sound Collection – The Polio Epidemic of 1955 – During the early 1950s, polio rates in the U.S. were above 25,000 annually; in 1952 and 1953, the U.S. experienced an outbreak of...
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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