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BROADCAST ON WNYC TODAY IN:
1955: Gilbert Seldes, cultural critic and author, comments in his show The Lively Arts on the stupidity of living in a world with atomic bombs. He also talks about the coming of television to Sweden and the promise of subscription television in the United States.
1969: On this edition of Black Man in America, Dr. John Henrik Clarke, historian and editor of Harlem: A Community in Transition, talks about the fascinating ethnic history of the Striver's Row neighborhood.
1974: On The Reader's Almanac Walter James Miller interviews Dr. Gerald Greenberger and John McGee, magazine writer, about Dr. Greenberger's book Everything You Should Know About Acupuncture.
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March 1, 1939
His Honor The Mayor may have stood behind WNYC's microphones more often, but he didn't neglect WQXR's. Here he is 'testifying' in the 'court of public opinion' held during a dinner at the Pierre Hotel for the Salvation Army's '1939 Citizens Appeal' to raise $500,000 for the charity.
The WQXR mic featured here is a Western Electric 630A "Eight Ball," which you can see up-close in a display case in the WQXR area on the 8th floor of our studios at 160 Varick Street. (Acme News Photo/WQXR Archive Collections)
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Alice's Restaurant - An Early Rendition
February 18, 1967
The Scene: WNYC's American Music Festival concert at Carnegie Hall, hosted by Oscar Brand with Len Chandler, John Hammond, Tom Paxton, Jean Ritchie and a nineteen-year-old Arlo Guthrie.
"In truth he didn't think the youngster was all that special. Brand would later reminisce, 'I knew he was a kid. I was just doing him a favor by putting him on because, what the hell, he was Woody's kid.' The afternoon of the Carnegie concert Arlo asked Brand, 'How long do I have, Oscar?' Brand told him that every performer was expected to adhere to a twenty-five minute segment. As long as they stayed within their allotted time, performers could choose to perform as many songs as they wished. 'Twenty-five minutes is one song,' Guthrie frowned. 'What do you mean that's one song?' Brand replied incredulously. Following Brand's own set, Arlo managed to perform two original songs in his segment: I'm Going Home, a slight but pretty autumn song written in the Berkshires, and Alice's Restaurant. An attending New York Times critic described Guthrie's long-winded talking blues as 'an amusing but pointed spoken monologue on the vagaries of law enforcement, the selective service draft and their relation to the war in Vietnam.' "
Source: Reineke, Hank, Arlo Guthrie: The Warner/Reprise Years, Scarecrow Press, Inc., 2012, pgs. 47-48.
Editor's Note: This was one of Guthrie's earliest public performances of Alice's Restaurant (if not the earliest). The Times brief review by Alan Hughes was printed on page 71 of the paper the following day. The ballad reportedly aired a number of times over WBAI in 1966.
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