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List Price: $28.50Price: $10.00 You Save: $18.50 (65%)as of 09/05/2010 20:54 EDT details
Binding: Hardcover
Dewey Decimal Number: 791.440973
EAN: 9780375402876
Edition: 7th Print
ISBN: 037540287X
Label: Pantheon
Manufacturer: Pantheon
Number Of Items: 1
Number Of Pages: 535
Publication Date: October 13, 1998
Publisher: Pantheon
Release Date: October 13, 1998
Studio: Pantheon
Editorial Review:
Product Description:
For everybody "raised on radio" -- and that's everybody brought up in the thirties, forties, and early fifties -- this is the ultimate book, combining nostalgia, history, judgment, and fun, as it reminds us of just how wonderful (and sometimes just how silly) this vanished medium was. Of course, radio still exists -- but not the radio of The Lone Ranger and One Man's Family, of Our Gal Sunday and Life Can Be Beautiful, of The Goldbergs and Amos 'n' Andy, of Easy Aces, Vic and Sade, and Bob and Ray, of The Shadow and The Green Hornet, of Bing Crosby, Kate Smith, and Baby Snooks, of the great comics, announcers, sound-effects men, sponsors, and tycoons.
In the late 1920s radio exploded almost overnight into being America's dominant entertainment, just as television would do twenty-five years later. Gerald Nachman, himself a product of the radio years -- as a boy he did his homework to the sound of Jack Benny and Our Miss Brooks -- takes us back to the heyday of radio, bringing to life the great performers and shows, as well as the not-so-great and not-great-at-all. Nachman analyzes the many genres that radio deployed or invented, from the soap opera to the sitcom to the quiz show, zooming in to study closely key performers like Benny, Bob Hope, and Fred Allen, while pulling back to an overview that manages to be both comprehensive and seductively specific.
Here is a book that is generous, instructive, and sinfully readable -- and that brings an era alive as it salutes an extraordinary American phenomenon.
Average Rating: 
Rating:  -
This book has some history, a few dates and numbers, and lots of stories.
Unfortunately, you'll be cruising along, reading the stories and enjoying yourself, and bap!, you're sucker-punched with some negative comment or exposure.
If you like to hear bad things about people who have accomplished greatness, or little insults toward styles that aren't cool enough, this is the book for you.
Rating:  -
This is a nice book and offers a lot of information, but it makes some omissions, especially with "Yours Truly, Johnny Dollar." The autthor only gives this great show a single sentence and nothing on it's greatest lead actor, Bob Bailey.
Rating:  -
I refer to Jerry's book many times in my weekly column, Radio Somewhere, in the Asbury Park Press. Jerry has managed to capture all the reasons we loved these radio shows in a highly readable format, taking us through the medium's various stages of maturity. He brings the characters, who we either loved or have heard so much about, to life with all the quirks, escapades, talents and foibles that their actors' possessed. And he gives plenty of context with which to understand the influences on the ... Read More
Rating: -
Gerald Nachman has captured the essence of the American era of entertainment known as "Radio's Golden Age" 1920-1962. His descriptions of the shows,formats,and content of the various types of broadcasts (news, comedy,soaps,quiz,etc.) is succint, pithy, and honest. I have been an OTR fan for over 35 years, and I believe this history of radio in America is perhaps one of the top 3 books on the subject. There are many tidbits and facts about shows and performers I had never read in any other book on ... Read More
Rating: -
Anyone in his 70s remembers the Golden Age of Radio. Gerald Nachman, an old college classmate of mine, is at or near that age. The result is a strong book that isn't based on others' recollections, but is based on Nachman's own experiences. Certainly he verified some facts by using normal research and reference tools, but Gerry's memories here are his own. They're vivid, they're succinct, and they're just wonderful. Raised on Radio is a gem, not because my friend wrote it, but because its title is ... Read More
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