Sound & Film

NBC Radio Collection

Recorded Sound Reference Center

Comprising over 70,000 hours of programming, the NBC Network radio holdings at the Library of Congress form one of the largest single collections of broadcast recordings in the United States. The recordings in the collection span the period from 1933 to 1971 and document the growth and development of the first and largest broadcasting network in the country. Particularly comprehensive is the collection's coverage of World War II, a period when NBC aired thousands of reports including some broadcast live from the front. In addition, the news and public affairs broadcasts include the voices of many of the most significant political and cultural figures of the twentieth century.

Treatment: The NBC recordings arrived at the Library as 16-inch, lacquer-coated glass and aluminum discs, a format susceptible brittleness, breakage, and delamination. The bulk of the collection has now been transferred to preservation tape and is available for listening in the Recorded Sound Reference Center where qualified researchers can locate individual broadcasts on a searchable database.

Library of Congress Concert Series

Recorded Sound Reference Center

Since its inception in 1925, the Library of Congress Concert Series, sponsored by the Music Division, has presented extraordinary seasons of chamber music concerts that have literally made music history. These concerts, featuring such legendary performers as Artur Rubinstein, George Szell, Nadia Boulanger, Leopold Stokowski, Claudio, Arrau, Leonard Bernstein, Leontyne Price, the Budapest String Quartet, the Juilliard String Quartet, and the Beaux Arts Trio, have showcased a number of notable premiers. Since 1940 the performances have been (and continue to be) recorded by the Library's Recording Laboratory. Throughout the years, recording media have come and gone, yet the desire to enjoy these unique and delightful performances remains.

Treatment: Original masters of these concert recordings reflect the history of recording technology though the decades and include 16-inch lacquer-coated discs, reel-to-reel tapes, Beta SP video tapes, as well as more recent digital technologies. In order to preserve the invaluable content of these recordings, most have been dubbed onto the currently accepted preservation medium ­ analog reel-to-reel tape. This includes all of the very fragile acetate discs, early reels, and less stable contemporary digital masters. These unique performances are much in demand by researchers and broadcasters, as well as record companies wishing to release or re-release these historical recordings. New releases are remastered from either the original recording or the preservation master, depending on the condition of each. In some instances, the original recording or the preservation master, depending on the condition of each. In some instances, the original glass acetate disc has broken or disintegrated beyond salvage and the preservation tape must be used. In other cases, the original disc may be sonically-superior, if the condition is good. Through reformatting for preservation, the Library keeps alive eight decades of unique musical masterpieces for the enjoyment of future generations.

Newport Jazz Festival Recordings

Recorded Sound Reference Center

As part of its Voice of America holdings, The Library of Congress maintains a substantial run of the recordings of this famous jazz festival. The collection covers the years 1955-1963, 1966 and 1970-1973. The recordings feature all the major jazz musicians of the mid twentieth century and represent styles including dixieland, swing, bop and free. Louis and Elaine Lorillard organized the festival in 1954 and club owner George Wein become its first director. By the second season, the Voice of America was broadcasting the performances from the festival with its popular jazz producer Willis Conover as host. Notable performers in the collection include John Coltrane, Duke Ellington, Miles Davis, Willie "the Lion" Smith, Ella Fitzgerald, Sarah Vaughan, Nina Simone, Sonny Rollins, Coleman Hawkins, Count Basie, Cecil Taylor, Louis Armstrong, Dizzy Gillespie. Herbie Hancock, Thelonoius Monk, Cab Calloway, Charles Mingus, and Gerry Mulligan. Among the unreleased material in the collection are selections by Rahsaan Roland Kirk, Art Blakey, and an entire set by the the Sun Ra Arkestra.

Treatment: The Voice of America's Newport Jazz Festival tapes were originally recorded on seven- and ten-inch acetate-based open-reel tape and have been transferred to preservation tape. Reference copies of the recordings may be auditioned by qualified researchers in the Recorded Sound Reference Center.

Raymond Gram Swing Collection
Raymond Gram Swing Collection
[Radio Commentaries]
Tape recordings, 1938-1953
Recorded Sound Reference Center

The Recorded Sound Section of the Library of Congress holds a significant run of radio broadcasts by the popular news reporter and commentator, Raymond Gram Swing. Originally a newspaper reporter, Swing debuted on radio in 1930 when he joined a discussion program on the BBC. During the 1930s Swing broadcast for the BBC, CBS, and Mutual networks, gaining popularity initially in England and later in the United States. Known for his quietly emphatic style, Swing retained a nightly news spot from 1939 to 1942 for Mutual, and from 1942-1947 for ABC. The Library's collection of Swing's commentaries begins with his 1938 coverage of the Munich crisis and continues through his 1953 broadcasts for the Voice of America. The collection touches on most significant events of forties and early fifties and allows researchers to trace attitudes toward Franklin Roosevelt, the American entry into World War II, D-Day, the early cold war, and the Korean War.

Treatment: The original lacquer discs have been transferred to preservation tape and now may be heard by qualified researchers in the Recorded Sound Reference Center.

Baking NPR
National Public Radio Collection
[NPR Radio Broadcasts]
Audio tapes
Recorded Sound Reference Center

Through an agreement reached in 1976, audio tapes of NPR's art, cultural, and performance programs are transferred to the Library of Congress. News and public affairs programs are transferred to the National Archives.

The recordings that make up the collection include performances by major American and European orchestras, jazz concerts and festivals, interviews with authors and composers, folk, bluegrass and ethnic music, opera and choral music concerts, radio dramas, and historical retrospective programs about jazz, popular music, and gospel.

Treatment: Access to the collection has been limited because of tape deterioration caused by hydrolysis or "sticky tape" syndrome. Hydrolysis, the decomposition of a chemical compound with water, is rendering much of the collection unplayable as impurities in the chemical binder of the tape attract moisture from the atmosphere, resulting in swelling and shedding of the tape.

Audio contents can often be recovered if each affected tape is individually heat treated, baked at a low temperature for eight hours, and transferred to a new, more stable tape.

In the past two years the Recording Laboratory of the Library of Congress has re-formatted hundreds of NPR tapes and continues with this important project.

Bing Crosby and the Kraft Music Hall
Kraft Music Hall
Audio tape, 1936-1946
Recorded Sound Reference Center

The Kraft Music Hall, as hosted by Bing Crosby from 1936 until 1946, was one of America's most popular radio programs. The program, like Crosby himself, was casual, with Crosby telling jokes, engaging in relaxed conversation with his celebrity guest stars, and crooning popular songs to millions of NBC listeners each Thursday evening. Yet, despite its seeming informality, the program was carefully scripted by Carroll Carroll, a veteran writer and longtime Crosby associate. Crosby's guests included regular appearances by Al Jolson, Bob Hope, Judy Garland, Nat "King" Cole, the Mills Brothers, the Charioteers, Peggy Lee, and Oscar Levant. Following Crosby's departure in 1946 for his prerecorded ABC radio program, "Philco Radio Time," Al Jolson regularly hosted the Music Hall until 1949. While Jolson and the Music Hall continued to provide high quality, live entertainment each week for radio audiences, Crosby's new ABC program relied on the newly developed medium of audio recording tape. Crosby's interest in recording tape, which allowed him to tape his shows ahead of time and according to his own schedule, was bitterly opposed by his old NBC network as well as by sponsors which were convinced that the listening public would not tolerate "canned" performances and would miss the spontaneity of a live performance. After a rough start caused more by the uneven quality of the new show rather than the new medium, the ratings climbed and audiences came to fully accept prerecorded programs. Recording tape would completely alter the nature of radio and the broadcast industry. The Library's collection of Kraft Music Hall programs includes copies of programs featuring both Crosby and Jolson.

Treatment: Sound conservators transferred the programs from lacquer-coated instantaneous discs onto preservation tape reels with indexes available in the Recorded Sound Reference Center. Log sheets, arranged by broadcast date, list the songs performed on the programs as well as the guest stars who appeared on the programs.

As nitrate film begins to deteriorate, the nitric acid that is released can cause the emulsion to liquefy, resulting in a defect known as "melt". This is graphically shown in this sample from Clarks' Thread Mill (Thomas Edison, 1896).

During the final stages of nitrate decomposition, the film ittructs into a fine brown powder.

All Quiet on the Western Front
AFI/Universal Pictures Collection
[All Quiet on the Western Front]
Film
1930
Motion Picture Broadcasting & Recorded Sound Division

All Quiet on the Western Front (Universal, 1930) posed an unusual set of problems for the Library's Motion Picture Conservation Center. While the Library held an almost complete copy of the film in the AFI/Universal Pictures Collection, the sound track presented many challenges. Since its initial showing in 1930, the film had been altered for presentation in foreign countries as well as re-release here, and in that time music tracks and other effects were added that both altered the otherwise grim tone of the film as well as muted the sound of bomb blasts and artillery shelling. Working with prints secured from around the world, Library technicians meticulously restored the original sound track. For the tirst time in sixty years, audiences can fully experience the aural and visual power of this film thanks tot eh Library's efforts.

Mr. Smith goes to Washington
AFI/Universal Pictures Collection

[Mr. Smith Goes to Washington] Film, 1939
Motion Picture Broadcasting & Recorded Sound Division

Mr. Smith Goes to Washington (Columbia, 1939) was preserved mainly from the 35mm original camera negative held by the Library as part of the AFI/Columbia collection. This negative was, however, badly damaged in places, and only 60% of it survived. A worldwide search was conducted by the Library's Motion Picture Conservation Center to locate the best surviving material. From that collected material, replacement footage was carefully preserved and inserted into places where the original negative was lost. Finally, a new print was struck using modern "wet gate" technology, a chemical process by which most scratches are eliminated. Library technicians spent three years and nearly $100,000 in public and private funds to restore Mr. Smith, which now sounds better, looks sharper, and has more emotional and intellectual impact than any version seen by audiences on television or in a theater since its release more than sixty years ago.

Mary Margaret McBride Collection
Mary Margaret McBride Collection
[Radio Broadcasts]
Audio tape
1935-1950
Recorded Sound Reference Center

Mary Margaret McBride, the highly successful radio commentator and journalist, reached the height of her popularity and influence in the twenty turbulent years, 1935 to 1955. During the run of her daily radio program she interviewed over 1200 people, ranging from fan dancer Sally Rand to President Harry Truman. She refined a unique, un-scripted interview style noted for its folksy ease and informality which enabled her to skillfully draw out fresh and spontaneous responses from her guests. The recordings in the Mary Margaret McBride Collection at the Library of Congress contain hundreds of interviews with leading public and political figures of her time: entertainers, other radio personalities, authors, educators, doctors, adventurers, restauranteurs, and average folks who had interesting stories to tell. Her subjects provide a highly personal perspective on American life during the dramatic and quickly changing years from the Great Depression through World War II, its aftermath, and the beginning of the Cold War. A brief list of her interview subjects includes Eleanor Roosevelt, Governor Thomas E. Dewey, Frank Lloyd Wright, Bob Hope, Carl Sandburg, Margaret Bourke-White, Zora Neale Hurston, Tennessee Williams, Joe DiMaggio, a man leading a campaign to improve teenage driving skills, a female test pilot, the woman who invented crossword puzzles, and the American Mother of 1942.

Treatment: The interviews, originally on hundreds of lacquer-coated transcription discs, along with related photographs, articles, and manuscripts, were gift to the Library from Cynthia Lowery, Miss McBride's long-time friend, in 1977. The interviews have been reformatted onto preservation audio tape and indexed.