"Leonard Maltin, one of America's leading authorities on film and an ardent radio buff, takes us along for a fascinating oral history of radio's golden age from its beginnings through its heyday to the bittersweet end of an era. The Great American Broadcast is based on hundreds of personal interviews and is filled with behind-the-scenes stories of some of the most colorful personalities of the era, from actors, directors, and writers to annoucers, producers, sponsors, and soud-effects wizards. It includes more than 100 black-and-white photographs and illustrations - many never before published."--BOOK JACKET.Title Summary field provided by Blackwell North America, Inc. All Rights Reserved

The executive producer of the PBS TV programs by the same name now brings the joys of North American rail journeys to readers in a large-format color tome. Enriched with historical detail, each of the eight chapters celebrates one rail journey. 150 color photos. 8 maps.

The Great American Makeover is a collection of essays that explore the American makeover mythos that has been recently repackaged in the form of popular makeover television programs such as Extreme Makeover, The Swan, Supernanny, and Queer Eye for the Straight Guy.

Such organizations as AT& T, General Electric, and the U.S. Navy played major roles in radio's evolution, but early press coverage may have decisively steered radio in the direction of mass entertainment. Susan J. Douglas reveals the origins of a corporate media system that today dominates the content and form of American communication.

Everything from Amos n' Andy to zeppelins is included in this expansive two volume encyclopedia of popular culture during the Great Depression era. Two hundred entries explore the entertainments, amusements, and people of the United States during the difficult years of the 1930s. In spite of, or perhaps because of, such dire financial conditions, the worlds of art, fashion, film, literature, radio, music, sports, and theater pushed forward. Conditions of the times were often mirrored in the popular culture with songs such as Brother Can You Spare a Dime, breadlines and soup kitchens, homelessness, and prohibition and repeal. Icons of the era such as Fred Astaire and Ginger Rogers, Louis Armstrong, Bing Crosby, F. Scott Fitzgerald, George and Ira Gershwin, Jean Harlow, Billie Holiday, the Marx Brothers, Roy Rogers, Frank Sinatra, and Shirley Temple entertained many. Dracula, Gone With the Wind, It Happened One Night, and Superman distracted others from their daily worries. Fads and games - chain letters, jigsaw puzzles, marathon dancing, miniature golf, Monopoly - amused some, while musicians often sang the blues. Nancy and William Young have written a work ideal for college and high school students as well as general readers looking for an overview of the popular culture of the 1930s. Art deco, big bands, Bonnie and Clyde, the Chicago's World Fair, Walt Disney, Duke Ellington, five-and-dimes, the Grand Ole Opry, the jitter-bug, Lindbergh kidnapping, Little Orphan Annie, the Olympics, operettas, quiz shows, Seabiscuit, vaudeville, westerns, and Your Hit Parade are just a sampling of the vast range of entries in this work. Reference features include an introductory essay providing an historical and cultural overview of the period, bibliography, and index.

The Concise Encyclopedia of American Radio is an essential single-volume reference guide to this vital and evolving medium. Comprised of more than 300 entries spanning the invention of radio to the Internet, this refernce work addresses personalities, music genres, regulations, technology, programming and stations, the "golden age" of radio and other topics relating to radio broadcasting throughout its history. The entries are updated throughout and the volume includes nine new entries on topics ranging from podcasting to the decline of radio.

This reference work contains exhaustive histories of 31 of network radio’s most durable soap operas on the air between 1930 and 1960. The soap operas covered are Aunt Jenny’s Real Life Stories, Backstage Wife, Big Sister, The Brighter Day, David Harum, Front Page Farrell, The Guiding Light, Hilltop House, Just Plain Bill, Life Can Be Beautiful, The Light of the World, Lora Lawton, Lorenzo Jones, Ma Perkins, One Man’s Family, Our Gal Sunday, Pepper Young’s Family, Perry Mason, Portia Faces Life, The Right to Happiness, Road of Life, The Romance of Helen Trent, Rosemary, The Second Mrs. Burton, Stella Dallas, This Is Nora Drake, Today’s Children, Wendy Warren and the News, When a Girl Marries, Young Doctor Malone, and Young Widder Brown. Included for each series are the drama’s theme and story line, an in-depth focus on the major characters, and a listing of producers, directors, writers, announcers, casts, sponsors, ratings, and broadcast dates, times and networks. Profiles of 158 actors, actresses, creators and others who figured prominently in a serial’s success are also provided.